Wood Pigeon Clock

I was woken - or should that be awoken? - this morning by the sound of a wood pigeon perched in a nearby tree telling me the time was six-oh-one. Six-ooh-won, it cooed, six-ooh-won. Six-ooh-won. How does it know the time so precisely I thought and decided to check its accuracy by looking at my mobile phone which was on the shelf beside my bed? I was somewhat saddened to note that the time was actually six-oh-nine. But on thinking it over decided it had done extremely well for a wild creature which even from its lofty perch was probably unlikely to be able to see the time on the village hall clock. If indeed it knew how to tell the time from a clock.

I dozed off again only to be woken - or should that be awoken? – by the insistent cooing of a collared dove telling me -in Arabic- that God is great. Al-oooh-akba, it cooed. Al-oooh-akba. Why, I thought, is it cooing in Arabic? I decided to check the collared dove’s origins on Google. It turns out that it originated in Asia. It could therefore be Muslim. This explanation was acceptable to me and I turned over and went back to sleep. I awoke naturally about an hour later. All was peaceful apart from the gentle twittering of small birds. None of whom seemed to require my attention.