Poor lost pigeon...

Max Headroom

So i get up yesterday morn and take a look out the kitchen window as i do every morning, and theres a sad looking pigeon in the flowerbed,..i go out to check him out, theres birdfood and water in abundance in the garden, and he stands up...i notice a green rubber ring on his leg..as close as i could get i saw it had an "S" ....he flew off onto another roof, i noticed that his tail feathers wer looking a bit messed up..(cat maybe..?)...So i Google "pigeon racing" and a list of clubs etc. pop up...i pick a guy close to me and give him a call...tbh i didnt know what else to do...he informs that theres loads of racing going on and he might have just stopped off for a rest "etc"....good bye....
This morning he's still there, but any advance causes him to retreat back onto the roof.....he stayed there most of the morning...
Lunch time and we were having lunch when........WOW ..look out the window and theres a beautiful Hawk swooping across the garden fence...took me a few seconds to realise that the poor pigeon was no longer there.....:(

Nature i suppose...I love all things nature, nothing is nicer than watching the dozens of sparrows, thrushes and doves that feed ,drink and wash in our garden......but what annoyed me a little was the guy i rang about the pigeon..the "etc" he said was that "ah sure fu**in loads of them go missin"....sounded a bit callous to me....i'm too soft i guess...:)

Tropheus

I found one in the garden last week. It had two rings on it. One of them was the owners phone number. Gave him a call and he dropped out the next day to pick it up. He was very appreciative. I think you just called the wrong guy. Most pigeon keepers will go out of their way to get their birds back.

They are hard to catch, but if they hang around long enough, they'll be so knackered that they'll be easy enough to catch. The trick is to get there before a hawk or a cat. As you said, it's in the hawk's nature and nothing you could do.

carav10

Go to this website http://www.racingpigeon.ie/strays.php
and check the code versus the pigeons tag. Then go to the relevant website and via the rest of the code you can track it to the specific club and contact them directly. Owners generally go to a lot of trouble to get them back so it's worth tracking down the correct club.

Picked up a stray one time and he was returned to his owner the other end of the country. A local pigeon racer picked him up. The website above gives advice on care etc. I put my stray into the dog crate & covered it over, fed him oats and loads of water. If left outside a cat will get it especially if they're very tired.

Good luck!