Delightful and Glorious: Fly high Delorious

[Feefo]

I don't often post on the Hall of Love, it is too painful so I wrap all my departed pigeons in my heart, but Delorious was special to so many people, including members of this forum that always ask about her in correspondence with me, that I couldn't let her go without a public eulogy.

About three years ago Les, who feeds the birds on Clapham Common, sent me a photograph of his very favourite feral pigeon, Delorious. She (I will always refer to her as a she, even though she could be a he) was a large , solitary bird, missing one foot , her other foot incomplete and with broken tail feathers that never regrew. But the iridescence around her neck was incomparable. She was clever and would position herself behind Les to receive her peanut treats, and hover expertly beside him wherever she found him. Once she had eaten she would go to the pond for a last drink, then fly off alone, making a large circuit of the common before disappearing into the distance.

A little under a year ago Les telephoned me and when he said said “I am holding my favourite pigeon in my hands”. My heart sank , because I knew something must have happened to Delorious. He went on to say that he had found her wounded on the common and was taking her to Retief Ehlers for treatment. Les and Retief nursed her back to health, but Retief felt that she was too old and battle scarred to fend for herself and so she came to live in my aviary.

I can't say that Delorious was really happy in the aviary, she had no desire for pigeon company and so she stayed in one spot most of the time, moving only to eat or to roost in a nestbox. One day, a few months ago, I found her being jumped on by other pigeons and when I brought her indoors found that her poops were black and her mouth was pale . Both very bad signs. I put her in a wicker pigeon carrier on a heat pad and after worming and treating with Baytril and another antibiotic prescribed by Retief she made an improvement, but I kept her indoors where she had the run of a bedroom and later the company of other pigeons (Holly, then My Little Angel) as they went through their own recoveries. She liked her company indoors , because there was enough room for her to have her own space as well – and she was very possessive about her wicker basket, glaring furiously through the bars when any other pigeon dared to get in it! And she loved “her” room, where she could lie comfortably in the sunshine, eat and drink without interference from a boisterous bunch of pigeons.

Although Delorious seemed to have recovered from whatever had caused the black poops, she suddenly started passing undigested seed. An X-ray didn't reveal anything in the gizzard, although there was something non-metallic in the crop. The vet and I agreed that surgery would be too difficult for her. Then the black poops returned, she started to vomit. Her keel was sharp and she was no longer able to fly up to her favourite perch. Instead, she started spending more time on her heat pad in her basket.

Les had a word with Retief who was surprised to hear that she was still alive. He said that he thought she must be suffering from Proventricular Dilation Disease and warned Les that she would not last much longer, so Les and Keiko travelled up to Norwich (a four hour drive for them) to say their final goodbyes two or three weeks ago.

I thought I had found the solution to all her troubles by feeding her Poly Aid, a high energy, low residue food...for a few days she showed some improvement and I thought that I had beaten the odds when she was once again able to fly up to her perch. But on Sunday when I went to give her her supper she was breathing noisily and died as I held her in my arms.

Les and Keiko came up for her funeral yesterday. They put peanuts into her casket and she was buried next to the aviary. John will be providing a fruit tree to mark the site.

We all loved Delorious and will miss her more than words can say.