Pigeon

I saw from Blipper 'Hildasrose' a few days ago that there was a loose challenge to Blip a picture of a pigeon this week. No problem, thought I, we have lots of pigeons in the garden. Not 'aving that, thought the pigeons, and promptly disappeared. The promise of food did nothing to bring them back and it was only when I put some nice fresh, cold water into the bird bath that this one decided to come down for a quick paddle. And promptly flew away again.

I was reminded of a time several years ago when a rather unusual and nice looking pigeon landed in my garden and decided to stay. Although it wouldn't let me get very close it was clearly tame and I wondered if it was an escaped pet. It had a ring on its leg but I couldn't get close enough to get any details but after about four days it was still there. It dawned on me that it could be a racing pigeon so I telephoned the British Racing Pigeon Association for advice. A very helpful man asked me to describe it and confirmed it was almost certainly a racer. "What should I do?" I asked him. "Are you feeding it?" he asked. "Yes", I replied, feeling quite proud of myself that I was taking good care of someone's pride and joy. "Well stop it!", he said. "It's in a race and it will never go home if you keep giving it food!".

So, if you race pigeons and about ten years ago one arrived home about six days later than you expected, I apologise. I hope you didn't have too much money riding on it.