stop the pigeon, stop the pigeon...

ablelocks

used to love this cartoon when i was young...

a homing pigeon arrived at our house yesterday - just walked into the kitchen, cool as you like. whooshed it out, but then it came back in, twice. so every door and window closed to keep it out.

The Dog, temporarily rechristened Muttley, is going mad and the pigeon seems to delight in its hysteria - it sits on anything just above the height the dog can get to and just stares at it. Kinda like Vinnie Jones...



Muttley was just about to jump on the car bonnet to get at it this evening. he got a clip on the nose for his trouble and now is giving me the cold shoulder.

Pigeon meanwhile took to the roof and went to sleep (i think) for awhile. Muttley is in the sitting room watching, waiting, contemplating how he's going to catch the pigeon. Pigeon wakes up, spots Dog thru the window and launches itself kamikaze style at the Dog. Hits the window pane and is now dazed and confused on the footpath, but otherwise seems fine.

we've contacted the Pigeon Support Union, but haven't had any response from them... at this rate, either the pigeon or the dog will be at the vet by tomorrow

Lost implants

Wasn't it a passenger pigeon? If you had one of those in your kitchen that would be a story

Mimon

ablelocks wrote: »

used to love this cartoon when i was young...

a homing pigeon arrived at our house yesterday - just walked into the kitchen, cool as you like. whooshed it out, but then it came back in, twice. so every door and window closed to keep it out.

The Dog, temporarily rechristened Muttley, is going mad and the pigeon seems to delight in its hysteria - it sits on anything just above the height the dog can get to and just stares at it. Kinda like Vinnie Jones...



Muttley was just about to jump on the car bonnet to get at it this evening. he got a clip on the nose for his trouble and now is giving me the cold shoulder.

Pigeon meanwhile took to the roof and went to sleep (i think) for awhile. Muttley is in the sitting room watching, waiting, contemplating how he's going to catch the pigeon. Pigeon wakes up, spots Dog thru the window and launches itself kamikaze style at the Dog. Hits the window pane and is now dazed and confused on the footpath, but otherwise seems fine.

we've contacted the Pigeon Support Union, but haven't had any response from them... at this rate, either the pigeon or the dog will be at the vet by tomorrow

Ring some of the pigeon clubs and if it's ringed on the leg they will be able to find who owns it.

Firblog

Mimon wrote: »

Ring some of the pigeon clubs and i
f it's ringed on the leg they will be able to find who owns it.

Homing pigeon that gets lost isn't much good to owner, most probably be pigeon pie.

Riesen_Meal

I found a lost and disoriented pigeon around my way once, he was alive but not really moving, rang the nearest pigeon club I could think of and I put him in a Heineken box and drove him in my car (while it was ****ting in the box) to some pigeon sage aul lad in Coolock, turns out it was another pigeon man from further up the road and he was very grateful for it's return...

Moral of the story, use a box while driving dehydrated pigeons around the place...

There's a shed opposite the window where I'm typing as I speak, this is the spot where I work from home, so I'm always looking out.

In the gutter of that shed, a crow has been hiding his stolen food (bread, dog-food, whatever he can get his beak into). What amazes me is the way the starlings watch him, I see the starlings gathering on the gable-end and gates. Crow thinks he is being very clever, but as soon as he flits away, the starlings pounce on his treasure.

It's a fascinating sight. I'm not gone on pigeons, tbh, but I find starlings to be extremely clever, under-acknowledged birds. Let's not even start on their murmuration business. They have intelligence we haven't yet discovered.

Mimon

Firblog wrote: »

Homing pigeon that gets lost isn't much good to owner, most probably be pigeon pie.

Nah, they can get lost due to weather etc.

branie2

Muttley had a great laugh

Leg End Reject

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

There's a shed opposite the window where I'm typing as I speak, this is the spot where I work from home, so I'm always looking out.

In the gutter of that shed, a crow has been hiding his stolen food (bread, dog-food, whatever he can get his beak into). What amazes me is the way the starlings watch him, I see the starlings gathering on the gable-end and gates. Crow thinks he is being very clever, but as soon as he flits away, the starlings pounce on his treasure.

It's a fascinating sight. I'm not gone on pigeons, tbh, but I find starlings to be extremely clever, under-acknowledged birds. Let's not even start on their murmuration business. They have intelligence we haven't yet discovered.

I love starlings, they get comfortable around humans very easily and can even learn to talk as they're such good mimics.

Leg End Reject

Leg End Reject wrote: »

I love starlings, they get comfortable around humans very easily and can even learn to talk as they're such good mimics.

Amazing mimics, I think they can actually mimic human voices. Back when people had house phones, there was a house phone here with a speaker connected to the milking parlour. The starlings heard the phone ringing that often, they began to mimic it. That's a common enough experience.

At this time of year, when the nestlings are emerging, you'll see the starlings grazing in the grass (looking for worms and insects). They actually graze in a queue, you'll see rows of starlings will move together up the line, as the rows ahead carry away their pickings.

They're great fun to watch.

Burt Renaults

Fieldog wrote: »

I found a lost and disoriented pigeon around my way once, he was alive but not really moving, rang the nearest pigeon club I could think of and I put him in a Heineken box and drove him in my car (while it was ****ting in the box) to some pigeon sage aul lad in Coolock, turns out it was another pigeon man from further up the road and he was very grateful for it's return...

Moral of the story, use a box while driving dehydrated pigeons around the place...

That reminds me of something that happened when I was a child. There was a lost homing pigeon 'living' in my back garden for a few days. He'd fly off for a while, but always seemed to come back. Probably because we were feeding him. He shat everywhere; we couldn't hang clothes on the line with him around. Anyhow, we were getting double-glazing installed at the time. One of the window fitters actually kept pigeons himself (he was a northsider, obviously), so he checked the number on the tag. One quick phone call was all it took to find the owner. This was a good few years before the internet (around 1990, I think), so I remember finding that amazing that you could track the owner of a pigeon down so quickly.

Why do northsiders keep pigeons? To teach their kids to walk.

Sgt Hartman

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Amazing mimics, I think they can actually mimic human voices. Back when people had house phones, there was a house phone here with a speaker connected to the milking parlour. The starlings heard the phone ringing that often, they began to mimic it. That's a common enough experience.

At this time of year, when the nestlings are emerging, you'll see the starlings grazing in the grass (looking for worms and insects). They actually graze in a queue, you'll see rows of starlings will move together up the line, as the rows ahead carry away their pickings.

They're great fun to watch.

I love starlings myself. A big flock of them always come into my garden after I cut the grass to forage for worms. I love watching them from the kitchen window, they always look so focused on their worm hunt.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Wait until the dog falls asleep, glue feathers to it's face, confuse the hell out of it.

Riesen_Meal

Burt Renaults wrote: »

That reminds me of something that happened when I was a child. There was a lost homing pigeon 'living' in my back garden for a few days. He'd fly off for a while, but always seemed to come back. Probably because we were feeding him. He shat everywhere; we couldn't hang clothes on the line with him around. Anyhow, we were getting double-glazing installed at the time. One of the window fitters actually kept pigeons himself (he was a northsider, obviously), so he checked the number on the tag. One quick phone call was all it took to find the owner. This was a good few years before the internet (around 1990, I think), so I remember finding that amazing that you could track the owner of a pigeon down so quickly.

Why do northsiders keep pigeons? To teach their kids to walk.

It's not just us Northside ninjas with a penchant for pigeons, sure why is the Pigeon House road in Ringsend called it's namesake?

There are load of aul lads with Pigeon lofts in Ringsend around Sean Moore road, Bremen road, Pine road and that big estate there...

Badly Drunk Boy

Fieldog wrote: »

It's not just us Northside ninjas with a penchant for pigeons, sure why is the Pigeon House road in Ringsend called it's namesake?

There are load of aul lads with Pigeon lofts in Ringsend around Sean Moore road, Bremen road, Pine road and that big estate there...

In fairness though, isn't Ringsend the bit of the northside that got away?

Riesen_Meal

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

In fairness though, isn't Ringsend the bit of the northside that got away?

Ringsend "a bit of Coolock in Dublin 4"