Bread Distributor Returns to South Benches, This Time With an Audience
The woman in the green coat who distributes bread at the south benches on weekday afternoons returned Wednesday with a second human, who carried a device and pointed it at the assembled birds for the length of the feeding.
The regulars, accustomed to being fed but not to being recorded, responded with what one observer called "a noticeable drop in dignity." Birds that normally approach the bread directly waited in the hedge until the device was lowered. The smaller ones performed. The older ones did not.
One pigeon left without eating. Those who know him said they had never seen him do that — he is, by reputation, always already there, and always stays. On Wednesday he looked at the bread, looked at the device, and went home.
The birds have not decided whether to return Thursday. The bread has always been reason enough. For at least one of them, it is now competing with the wish not to be watched while he takes it.