Nigel Gummidge

 As pets we keep no dogs nor cats, but free-flying white doves who come to be fed.

On the end of our house is a white dovecote which has proved less popular as a roosting and nesting site than the space beneath the solar panels on my friend Claire’s roof.

One of the reasons is that the dovecote, with it’s pretty arched openings, is vulnerable to crows and magpies.  This spring, two pairs of doves were nesting, and then suddenly they weren’t - the nests were abandoned, the eggs and chicks vanished, and on the ground a tell-tale broken egg.  There had been a crow raid. 

We were chatting with some of the teenagers at church and confided we were worried that when the doves nested again, the crows would attack once more.  Yet we could think of no device which would keep the crows out, which would not also deter the doves.

‘You want a scarecrow,’ announced one of the boys. 

We laughed, but on consideration, he was quite right.

The doves have no fear of Nigel – it is mostly he who feeds them. So I made a model Nigel, using his old clothes and even printing out a photo of his face for it.

Nigel then sat his doppelganger on top of the garage.

It is a measure of the politeness of our lovely neighbours that they waited nearly a week before gently enquiring why we had put a lifesize model of Nigel on the roof.

So far, the crows appear not to have returned, and there has been an unexpected side effect.  We put the figure up there to scare the crows.  We did not anticipate it would also have a positive influence on the doves. 

Such is their affection for Nigel that we now have more birds than ever roosting and nesting in our little dovecote.