We came in from shopping yesterday to find one pigeon and the female cat sitting on the arm of the settee!! They were just looking at one another. Dont know if the pigeon flew in through the door/window as daughter was at home. We are sure that the cat never touched it though. Bird poo all over my suite, not very nice.
My OH has now started to feed it, as he said it was very light when he picked it up and also had nothing in its crop. I dont dislike pigeons, but dont really want to encourage them either. They spent the night in the barn on the rafters, so door had to be left open. He seems to think if we feed them up they will go home. I really hope he is right.
Over the past week or two I have had two pairs of wood pigeons and a pair of newlywed collard doves stripping the feeder of seed, our resident blackbird family enjoyed me digging out some annoying plants from a random border and last years house sparrows have taken up residence in our eves again; they are quite a handy organic alarm clock if you want awakening with the sun. I’m assuming that they are the same ones, they sound the same.
Definitely the same two that came weeks ago now. Only this new one joined them about 4 days ago.
I thought they had moved on :cry: just goes to show how wrong I was.
I thought that about feeding them, that it would encourage them to stay, but even I gave in today and gave them some corn as they looked so hungry. Next thing you know I will be out buying pigeon feed, whatever that may be.
Are they ex racing pigeons with rings on their feet or wild ones? We get quite a few wood pigeons in our garden, everything gets fed in our garden, but now they want to get married & set up home in our garden, just what i want, cooing outside our bedroom window every morning I've often wondered how you sell a racing pigeon, bit of a con if it just goes straight home again
They do have rings on so must be the 'full monty' if you see what I mean.
They are I think kept in for a while, so they can acclimatize (sp) to their surroundings, then supposedly they should go back after being released. Think something must have gone wrong with these three though
We too have two 'pets' back - partridges......they were here last year and spend ages stopping by the girls and chatting.
Last year they nested in the open, laid about 13 eggs. I got really excited and then very despondent. Daily the egg count (didn't hatch) went down and the partridges disappeared.
I hope they have learned their lesson from last year, not to lay the eggs where everything can see them.
Aw Anna thats really sad, like you say lets hope the learn, maybe they were youths Very dinky babies are partridge you'd have had a coronary keeping an eye on such titchy tiny little things.
We had a pheasant nesting in the daffodills. It was very hard to see her, she looked like a pile of dead grass or something. A hugh clutch.
But them the daffs died back and she was exposed, and one morning there was just a pile of feathers.
Just popped in to report that the third racing pigeon has a poorly leg :cry: , bless him/her.
We are feeding them on a regular basis now, will call and get some special pigeon food tomorrow, but at the moment they are on corn with plenty of fresh water.
Cant see what has happened the leg, everytime I get close it flys off. Will watch and wait as nothing much else I can do. Unless of course you guys know any different.
I just cant believe after being in such close contact with the cat the other day that any of them want to hang around here.
Just to add the puter is a bit poorly as well, waiting to the the puter doctor, so it is hit and miss when I can get on here at the moment.
One was following OH round the garden.
I found this link that says give it water and rice or bird feed (not bread, which I might have), only feed it for a day or to.
And if it hasn't gone after 2 days report it to the organisation on the ring.
I didn't even know there was more than one ringing organisation.
Mind you, I should think that if the pigeon gets lost and won't go home by itself it's not much good as a racer, so some owners might not travel far to collect it.
Gwen if you can catch one of them - pull out its wing - They normally have a telephone number stamped on them.
Alternatively if you can read the code on its ring http://interbug.com/pigeon/lost.html and they will give you the number of the owner to ring and let them know.
The one I have been looking after had flown from Glos and was supposed to home itself to stoke on trent - came all the way up to Lancashire instead. Its Sat Nav obviously wasnt working.
Only problem is - if you feed them for 10 days or more apparently they have a habit of rehoming themselves!!! The owner we spoke to said to stick him in a box give sugared water and rice or wild bird feed and then when rested drive a couple of minutes away and release. First time that didnt work and he managed to find his way back to our house!!! Second time I drove miles away to a reservoir and let him go there. So far I haven't seen him again. I hope he gets home OK.
My youngest son was very excited and is wishing for 'Barry' as he named him, to come back to our house again so he can take him to school for 'show and tell'!!!
They were just looking at one another. Dont know if the pigeon flew in through the door/window as daughter was at home. We are sure that the cat never touched it though. Bird poo all over my suite, not very nice. 
They know their bread is buttered.....
