Ta Cayuga I found this from Wikipedia.... "Feral pigeons (Columba livia domestica or Columba livia forma urbana), also called city doves, city pigeons, or street pigeons,[3][4] are descendants of domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) that have returned to the wild.[5] The domestic pigeon was originally bred from the wild rock dove, which naturally inhabits sea-cliffs and mountains.[6] Rock, domestic, and feral pigeons are all the same species and will readily interbreed. Feral pigeons find the ledges of buildings to be a substitute for sea cliffs, have become adapted to urban life, and are abundant in towns and cities throughout much of the world.[7]" And a few pictures of mine of some Feral pigeons down in Dorset..
Many years ago I had a pair of white domestic pigeons and kept them in a dovecote. I had to keep the hen imprisoned for a couple of weeks behind a wire cage, and that ''homed'' the pair of them. Two soon became about 15, and I was generally known in the area (amongst other things) as the pigeon lady. This resulted in people bringing birds to me to nurse if they were found in trouble! How things can escalate. The offspring from the original doves were white speckled with grey/black/brown which implicated a dubious behaviour concerning the hen bird My birds became extremely tame, and the original male bird would meet me on the way home after I did the shopping, sit on the bonnet of the car and hitch a ride up the hill where we lived. He would then ''help'' me get the shopping into the house and sit on the kitchen table to get his beak in the bags to see what goodies he could find.
My pleasure Cayuga Back in Medieval times the lord of the manor would keep pigeons for eggs and meat. They built Dovecotes to keep them in. Inside there were many "pigeon holes" that the birds nested in and a wooden contraption that enabled the gamekeeper to access the nests. Not the easiest thing to take a picture of I'm afraid Better pic of daughter#2 Willow outside
Glad you liked the stories Cayuga. My dovecote wasn't quite as grand as that one, more along the lines of this....
Okay, wait, that round cylindrical thing is a dovecoat? First you showed pics of it inside, then the outside with daughter #2? So those holes inside are the places for the nests? How do the birds get in and out?
Yep, and Tetters' pic was a dovecote too, just a smaller one. Yep, on the inside are the pigeon holes for nests, pigeons will nest on anything flat. They get in and out thru the "wind eye" (that word evolved into window) in the second picture. The wooden contraption inside revolves so each nest could be plundered. I was sitting in the town square eating pasties with Daughter#2. When I looked round she was holding a pigeon and sharing her pasty with it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-61994590 Here's a little story about Bob - he got lost and ended up in Alabama..... thanks for looking after one of ours
It is TeTTers . This was the name of a dear little yorkie I had, who was my best friend. It was in his name I started working with the Yorkie Rescue, and managed to rehome 30 unwanted and mistreated little souls after he died.
Sorry about that @Tetters that was my phone auto-correcting. It has a mind of it's own. One summer I was having several conversations via text with a friend about kale. I was also texting my son, Jake. So now my phone is permanently confused & keeps auto-correcting 'kale' for my son's name 'Jake'. And vice versa.
