The doos are home on Elm Row.
Shona Kinloch’s eight brass figures were removed from the site in 2006 as preparations began on the tramline extension from Newhaven to Broughton.
In the years since, the popular trip hazards (properly titled A Leith Walk since their creation in 1996) have been fully refurbished or, in three cases, recast.
Their reinstatement, along with that of the London Road clock adjacent, marks progress in beginning to restore some normality to the area.
Transport & Environment Convener Cllr Scott Arthur and City Archaeologist John Lawson officially unveiled the sculptures this morning at a ceremony attended by the artist (below) and avian-minded members of the press.
Much ado about numbers
In barely related news, ornithologists report a marked increase in the number of wood pigeons in the UK’s fields, suburban gardens and even city centres.
This they attribute to booming numbers in the countryside, where widespread production of oil rape seed provides abundant year-round food and related breeding fitness.
Some observers estimate wood pigeons may now outnumber the 18 million feral (town) pigeons which grace our pavements and shoulders nationwide.
Who's doo?
But are Kinloch’s plump brass pigeons wood pigeons or feral pigeons (relations of rock doves) or some other doves on a diet of doughnuts?
The Scots word doo embraces all three possibilities, whereas puddie is any plump pigeon and cushat and croodlin doo apply specifically to the wood variety.
Doos of every kind belong to the same family (Columbidae), of which there are over 300 species around the world. Doves tend to be smaller, but since Kinloch's sculptures are neither realistic nor life-size, doots about their true identity continue.
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