Ferals eh!

[Roland]

Story from Canada....

............. this week about a bird.

Not the usual type of bird call I get though. He said he knew I like writing things for the internet sites, etc so he thought I may want to do a write-up story on a newly acquired bird he has. We will name him 'Tom' for now.

 

Tom said living inside a town, he has a real problem with common pigeons coming to his lofts. They enter whenever the traps are open and make themselves at home with the feed, water and nesting materials. He says he has had to resort to shooting some of the more persistent ones. Usually one pellet and thats it.

 

Well... last week he had a persistent one come along. It was an ugly looking thing, like so many commons are. After trying all other methods of discouragement, he shot it early this week. Unluckily, one shot was not 'It' this time. The bird hit the ground, alive but with a pellet through it's wing. Unable to do it more damage, he took it to a home that had a lot of bird feeders and let it go. End of story... Not quite.

 

Two days later Tom's wife was getting ready to go to work. She started down the drive and had to stop the car. There was a pigeon walking to the house, in the middle of their driveway. She went in and called for Tom to come get it out of the drive.

 

Tom was shocked to find it was the very same pigeon, with a hole in it's wing. He said it had to have walked about 4 miles, crossed over 2 railway tracks, came through about an acre of wasteland thick with dense brush and 'clear across town' with lots of outdoor cats.

 

He said because it was so brave and persistent, (what started all this) with a homing instinct stronger than most of the birds he breeds, he is going to heal it and put it in his stock loft for next year. I think he said it's new name is 'Homer'.

 

Ever flew a great, great pigeon one race too many and lost it? Tom has an off- spring to it. lol.

[DJ]

brilliant story roland i loved it     maybe there are some street pigeons out there that could suprise us if trained and raced?  i remember reading in one of the pigeon weeklys about a fancier that tried out a street pigeon after it was brought to him as a baby by his neighbours children  apparently it did quite well and if i remember his words correctly he said that the street pigeon didnt disgrace itself and got some way through the yb race programme before he lost it   when you think that some racing pigeons are lost as yb,s in training before even seeing a race it makes you think      debbie

[jimmy white]

believe it or not ,,[see scotlands own book 199?  [forgot the year  ] i topped the fed with a bird rung out of a barn, 62 miles but unfortunately , never scored again i gave the bird away to an old fancier ,who wanted it for a pet along with the certificate      a van barn  ;D ;D ;D,,never the less, true