Watering the garden this evening we found a pigeon corpse nestling in the courgette plants...headless!
Following years of extensive study reading the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I have deduced that it was nailed by one of the family of peregrine falcons that wwe are fortunate enough to have live behind the house, and it managed to drop it's quarry on the way home over our garden.
Not that big a deal, but the bird wasnt a local you see. It had a ring on its leg which, having snipped it's foot off, I now have on my desk. Does anyone know if there's a website to let some poor fancier know his Speckled Jim has bought it?
Skin it, remove the breasts, straight on the barbie. Yum.
http://www.rpra.org/Default.aspx?tabid=595
Out of interest - how old was it and what country was it from ?
It will have the initials of the country plus the year it was born written on the ring.
Did it have a race ring too ?
you must be joking!
You do realise that pigeon fanciers are all northerners dont you? That means this bird has undoubtedly been raised in the foul stench of some northern pit town. It's probably got tuberculosis you know. And rickets.
Give me a wholesome country bird from the shires any day!
🙂
GG - just the one ring. 09 GB.
cheers for the link, I did find it on google shortly after my post.
Do they issue rewards? 🙂
Already marinated in whippet juice then!
Ah, only a few months old then. No reward.
Flash - the breast on a racing pigeon is solid muscle.
And stoner, you can be sure that any racing pigeon is far healthier than anything in the wild - those little guys have to be super-fit you know.
Didn't have you down as a pigeon fancier, my dear old thing.
Send the ring & a leg back. they get the rest when they pay the ransom!
😉
Yep, Captain. I've kept pigeons/doves for about 25 years.
I don't usually keep pigeons for that long, they taste too nice!
😉
Only shoot nice plump woodies though!
you see, this is why we differ GG.
All that "work ethic" of a townie racing pigeon, versus the bucolic laziness of the landed gentry pigeon of the shires 🙂
No comparison mate.
Wood pigeons don't live parasitic lives, ruthlessly exploiting the productive labours of their toiling town cousins.
Otherwise shooting them would indeed be justifiable.