A pigeon person, me? never!

[Victor]

It has been nearly one year now that "Tooter "came into our lives.Thinking back to two years ago, when we had a small family of pigeons living in a bird crawl space between our attic area and the built-in shed, the thought of having pigeons practically living in our house never came to my mind much except maybe in the morning when they would "coooo" and "goog-alcog goog-goog-algoog" over and over again. I recall my wife Bev saying how soothing the sound was as the sounds echoed out from our living room closet.I also remember telling my wife last winter that in the Spring I was planning on chasing the pigeons out and covering the opening with some sort of fencing.She argued that they are not hurting anything, so I dismissed that thought from my mind. All of a sudden the pigeons that lived up there for several years all of a sudden vacated their home.I believe Tooter (our pijjie)was one of the dwellers that lived there.Bev found him hurt and bleeding on our front steps .He had been a victim of careless teenagers shooting their BB guns.Well, that can very well be another story for a different day, but now I see pigeons in a totally different prospective. I often wonder why our pigeons left their "loft" and wonder why we do not have more.We are blessed with 5 brown squirrels, one black one, numerous sparrows, starlings, cardinals,speckled birds, blue jays, and some sort of larger black( crows?)
Every day when I go outdoors to feed our wild animals, I always look up in hopes of finding a stray pigeon! Oddly enough, just up the street(oh equivilent of 2 blocks) there is a team of pigeons that roost on a house roof all the time. Across the street is a Bag 'n Save supermarket, and every time I am checking out I admire their formations and am sometimes tempted to try and lure them to my place. And to add pain to injury, on my way to work, oh just another mile, is a flock of feral pigeons, and one very beautiful solid white one as well.Isn't strange how peoples minds change? Believe me, NEVER SAY NEVER!

[Garye]

Believe me, I was taught to feel no sympathy towards pigeons by my mother. She was a city girl so she saw them all the time where she lived but a few years after she married, our family moved to the suburbs and I don't recall ever seeing any pigeons before there. It was just only recent that I noticed some had moved in to our local mall. That's when I came across Hectoria. She was bold enough to trust me for the first time so we became fast friends. That's also when I noticed how cute pigeons were because it was the first time I saw one so close.

My mother still regards pigeons as dirty birds, but for that matter, all birds could be considered dirty when you think of it. I've tried showing her pix of them that I had taken with my camera but she still does not like them. Some of them are really pretty birds.

The funny thing is that when I go to feed Hectoria and her friends, not once did they mess my car and they wait patiently for their food. I love to see them come over. But every day when I go to work, I'll notice crap all over my car from the lovely song birds. I think pigeons are getting a bad rap.

I love pigeons. They're cute, personable and very trusting. How many wild birds do you know that are comfortable getting close to people on a daily basis?

[Victor]

It is really great how we can all relate to one another on PigeonTalk.com,isn't it?

[feralpigeon]

"My ferals" poop on me and the car when they see me.....I thought that it meant that they were happy to see me.
fp

[Victor]

They ARE happy to see you. Their muscles contract and expand because they see you, and it "just happens".It is a moment they experience which they have no control over. I don't mind it so much when "matter" happens to evolve on my "pigeon smock" but when I get "touched" on my head, ok it is time to roost somewhere else!

[Lin Hansen]

Victor,

LOL ....I don't know, in some cultures, I've heard it's good luck to get "touched" on the head.

Linda