The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.
KD
Since: May, 2009
2022-11-13 08:55:29
Overt Rendezvous — The page quote even mentions St James' Park and watching (perhaps also feeding) ducks.
marnanel
(Five Long Years)

Some spies arrange a clandestine meeting beside a duckpond, often the one in St James's Park in London, and feed the ducks standing separately while holding a conversation in hushed tones.
"A man wearing an all-concealing trenchcoat in summer draws attention, and if he's feeding ducks it's automatically assumed that he's a spy, politician, or space alien." — cited in Conspicuous Trenchcoat.
"The ducks in St James's Park are so used to being fed bread by secret agents meeting clandestinely that they have developed their own Pavlovian reaction. Put a St James's Park duck in a laboratory cage and show it a picture of two men — one usually wearing a coat with a fur collar, the other something sombre with a scarf — and it'll look up expectantly." — Good Omens
"In the same way spy tricks such as pretending to feed ducks around a pond..." — http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24910397
Usually for comic effect (Good Omens, Paul Merton Show), but I assume it must have been serious once.
Edited by marnanel