Every few months you can rely on a 'bird' story appearing somewhere in the London press.
This time it's those precious ravens over at the Tower again. According to this report the sacred birds have been coming "under attack" from flocks of crows who "swoop across the nearby Thames at feeding time to steal the meat of the royal mascots, whose pampered existence leaves them ill-prepared for such battles."
Poor pampered Ravens!
So what are the royal raven keepers to do about these predatory gangs of crows? Slap an ASBO on them? No, they just shoot them:
"Raven-keepers have resorted to the typical tactics of those in power - brute force, this time in the shape of guns which are brought out on a weekly basis to take out crows, with particular attention paid to the rebel leaders known as alpha-birds."
Rebel leader crows? Do you think they wear leather jackets and carry flickknives?
According to a Historic Royal Palaces spokesperson the most crows the gun-toting raven master has ever got in one day is 12. But if you want to go and cheer him on to beat his personal best you need to go along to the Tower at 6am on a Sunday morning.
What, with this and the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, London must be the bird murder capital of the world.
