Noelex

Thanks for the information. This pigeon’s journey has sparked my curiosity. It is not impossible he is from South Africa, as many birds hitch rides on boats and crew often feed them. If this is true we should not stop feeding the bird in the hope he will make his way home. A cattle egret took refuge on board our yacht last November midway across the Atlantic. He left about 10 days later when Barbados came into view on the horizon. We had a racing pigeon join us for about 30 hours on one North Sea crossing from the Netherlands to the north eastern tip of Scotland. If any of your birds sent across water arrive very late, but not particularly tired, consider they may have been given a lift. This affectionate pigeon is showing no sign of leaving (he is not confined) and has unfortunately become quite attached to us, softly nibbling at our toes and fingers and cooing lots, dozing wherever we are sitting. It is difficult keeping him out of the interior. We are hoping to find someone ashore who can give him a home.

I understand from my limited reading that the removable blue plastic ring with no markings on his right leg may indicate he was lost while racing?

JCN, it is certainly a small world. We hauled our boat out at Ardrossan Christmas 2021 to antifoul. We had spent the pandemic at anchor in the Hebrides.

I am not confident holding the bird and don’t want to stress it. I am sure it is easy if you know what you are doing but I do not.

Thanks everyone. Here are some better photos of the tag:

Thanks for the reply. Below is a photo. The bands are: Left leg: Bright blue band with WCC 2023 and in large numbers 0932 above this a black bandwith 002 in a grey typeface. Right leg: Dark blue band with no numbers.

Sorry I know nothing about racing pigeons, but one has flown onto our yacht anchored of Canouan in the Carabean. We have given it some water and seed (which it seemed very grateful for). I hope this appropriate. It has blue and black band on its feet. The blue band reads 932. Any advice would be appreciated. cheers John