I will publish the last New Leaf Journal article of 2021 on December 31, 2021. However, that article will be our customary month-in-review post. For that reason, the penultimate article of 2021, this very post for December 30, 2021, is the last article for the year of a different sort. What better way to bring 2021 to a close than with my photo of a very aesthetic pigeon.
There are two pigeons in the above photo. Both are quite striking. But the white and brown pigeon front-and-center is, I dare say, the most aesthetic pigeon to grace the web-pages of The New Leaf Journal. The pigeon is strikingly white and quite clean (this is not a pigeon that likes getting its feathers dirty). It has splotches of brown of varying shades on its back, neck, and chest. But what really caught my attention was the pigeon’s head and face – a short of chocolate brown with a white crown, and a notably red eyelid. Unlike some other birds I wanted to photograph, this pigeon was quite cooperative.
I photographed this pigeon and its friend at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza West and Pierrepoint Street in Downtown Brooklyn on the afternoon of August 15, 2021. I encountered these pigeons right next to the prime gathering spot for pigeons in Brooklyn Heights, Pierrepoint Street between Clinton and Cadman Plaza. That stretch of street is shady, residing in the showers of banks, office and government buildings, and doctors’ offices – which all provide ample high ground for pigeons to perch. I did see a falcon in the area one time, however, so perhaps the pigeons enjoy security in numbers.