I saw a twitter conversation today in which the humble pigeon was once again the subject of ridicule. It’s true there are probably more interesting birds out there, but I want to mount some sort of defence of the poor bird.
Let’s start by talking about how they take-off. Vertically! The first flap takes them straight up into the air. The second, with a little dip of the head moves them forward. Of course, this is not unique. Thousands of birds do this, but most of these, tend to be a lot smaller than pigeons. Seagulls for instance can’t do it, they have to run a few steps.
Next time you see a pigeon and get too close, watch for the double flap.
In my last post I talked about the fighting pigeons I had seen. It had never struck me that they would squabble like that. Quite the experience. The fact they do this in front of us just adds to the amazement!
What else do you think of when you think of pigeons? Homing pigeons? Pigeon Post? Stop the Pigeon? Well the first have been known to travel over 1,000km, the second was used by the Romans over 2000 years ago and the third takes me to Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. And that is always a good thing! Medal! Medal! Medal!
This last one also takes me to the all star cast of the 2005 film: Valiant, which was based on the real pigeons of World War II who were awarded Dickin medals for their gallantry and bravery in saving human lives with their actions.
So next time you see a pigeon and think ‘flying rat’ (btw ALL birds carry disease) I ask you to think of the long and distinguished history these birds have in serving US humans. In the bird world they are top of the tree in this regard!
When I started this blog I was motivated to share my experiences with what might be called common birds. Not the blue-footed boobies, birds of paradise and emperor penguins for me. Crows, pigeons and seagulls. In the last couple of days each of these wonderfully common birds has reaffirmed my original motivation.
Crows share a strange habit with some other birds. The bird will land, if it can, right on top of an ant’s nest. Then it will stretch it’s wings out and let, the now angry, ants crawl all over it. In amongst it’s feathers, everywhere! This made me feel really uncomfortable when I first saw it on TV. This week, I saw it for real! It’s amazing. Especially as what it looked like to me was Mother Crow showing fledgling crow how it works.
Pigeons get a bad press. For me they are the Harrier Jump-Jets of birds. They take off vertically with two rapid flaps of their wings (Ok, the jump-jet doesn’t do THAT bit. What I had not seen was a Pigeon fight. Today I did. Both birds on the ground, making the loudest pigeon noises I’ve ever heard. Wings up above their heads pushing each other around eye to eye! A few minutes later calm was restored. I don’t know if it was marital row or something else?
Finally to seagulls and to the beach. Watching the sun set over Bowen Island from Spanish Bank is always a treat. As we did we noticed more and more seagulls arriving on the beach. I can only assume it was a roost. The one’s closest to us became bolder as the light levels dropped. It was almost as if they were saying “OK, time to go, we want to sleep!”
We share our world with these wonderful birds at the same time as they live very much in theirs.
In the last couple of weeks the Ourbirdfeeder team has relocated south. Not the amazing distances travelled by our feathered friends but south nonetheless. Further, whilst it’s possible we may go back north again, unlike the birds, we are not planning it being anytime soon. We are still trying to sort out the feeders (and [...]
There is something distinctly prehistoric about these birds. The Black-headed Grosbeak on the left and the Evening Grosbeak on the right. Super-sized Finches, they are dramatically bigger than our normal visitor the House Finch. Take a look at those beaks! At that size I bet they could do some serious damage! Both of this guys [...]
As promised I am doing a Follow Friday blog post with a little more that 140 characters on each person: @mikeyboy50 – First up is Michel Rondeau from Sherbrooke, Quebec – Comptr Tech.(All OS’s) Nature, WLife, Bird lover… Amateur Photographer, Photo editing. Music lover…. of many kinds. Michel has a couple of sites well worth [...]
It never ceases to impress me that the Northern Flicker is so tolerant of sharing the feeder. This time it’s Pine Siskins, but it takes a lot to stop the flicker from sharing!
This book is incredible! The subtitle says it’s about who birds are, where they came from and how they live – it does all of that and more! The book is full of fascinating little pieces about individual birds. This is a book to savour – the richness of the stories, descriptions of the birds [...]
What else do you think of when you think of pigeons? Homing pigeons? Pigeon Post? Stop the Pigeon? Well the first have been known to travel over 1,000km, the second was used by the Romans over 2000 years ago and the third takes me to Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. And that is always a good thing! Medal! Medal! Medal!
