Some years ago while serving in the Royal Air Force working on radar, fighter pilots would request 'pigeons to base' or in other words, how many miles to their airbase in a direct line?

This of course alluded to the instinct of racing or homing pigeons to fly directly back to their lofts.

We are of course familiar with the town or feral pigeon often referred to as a 'rat with wings'. They are certainly messy birds, breed throughout the year and come in many colours from almost white to near black but most resemble their ancestor the wild rock dove.

We may curse the bird but in certain lights it can look quite beautiful. Equally familiar is the plump wood-pigeon, the population of which has escalated by about three hundred percent in recent years.

They remind me of portly vicars trotting off to evensong!

A similar species is the stock dove,smaller and lacking the white curate's collar and with more overall grey plumage apart from two black wing bars. A pair frequently visits my garden and when disturbed, take flight with a distinctive wheezing whistle of their wings.

A fourth species, the attractive collared dove first bred in Britain in 1955 in Middlesex.

This slim, pale pinkish-buff bird with a thin black half-collar has since spread countrywide.

A fifth species, the turtle dove, breeds in Britain but being a passage migrant is rarely seen nowadays as its population has plummeted in recent years.