A visitor

A few days ago we had a visitor. I stepped out of our cabin ( work kitchen ) and there in front of me was a beautiful racing / homing pigeon. I don’t know if it was male or female but I am going to refer to it as he because I don’t like calling the pigeon “it”.

I called my husband to come and see him and grabbed my camera. He was obviously used to people and being handled because he didn’t mind being very close to us. As soon as I pointed the camera at him he came straight up to it. I am guessing he used to being photographed.

He was pecking at the patio and I felt that he was hungry so I got some corn and sprinkled it on the patio. He hoovered it up in no time at all so I did the same again. The same thing happened so I put down a dish of corn and a dish of water for him.

He so reminded me of the chickens the way he pecked the corn from the dish, stood with one foot on the side of the dish sometimes and flicked the corn out of the dish.

I resumed my work with the door open so that I could keep an eye on him. I was worried about the possibility of a cat seeing him. He had his fill of corn and then moved to the top of our gate and snoozed for a while.

By now it was heading for dusk and I was worried about him staying put and being a target for predators. I decided to line the cat box with paper and see if I could put him in the cat box with food and water and put it in the shed overnight. I would then go online and see how to find out how to get him back to his owner.

I slowly moved my hands towards him and managed to touch him but just as I was about to get hold of him he flew straight upwards and landed on the telephone wire. I felt happier that he was high up and safer but worried about him being cold overnight if he was used to being housed in a pigeon loft.

At this point I felt there wasn’t much more I could do. I tried calling him down but he wasn’t falling for that. Dusk was approaching and I was worried for him but he started looking around and moved further out to the next telephone wire.

The next time I checked he was gone and nowhere to be seen. I hoped that a refuel and a rest was enough to set him on his way home.

I just hope that he got home safely. In hind sight it was probably as well I didn’t catch him because it may have stopped him from getting home on his own however I was just following my instincts.

I looked on the internet later and it seems that I did the right things. It said if a pigeon is lost or injured to put them in a cat box or something similar with corn or mixed grains and water and bring them inside.

It gave the link to a charity organisation that help to get pigeons back to their owners. In the question and answer section it also said that pigeons can fly back home in the dark.

This was reassuring as hopefully it meant that our visitor would have found his way home.