Help re homing pigeon landed in my garden

kilmaccumsey

Well-Known Forumite
This pigeon walked in to our house on Sat evening and has been here since , although he now in the garden , fed and watered ,. I contacted the lost pigeon people who said he prob tired , but No one has rang back to arrange a collection , now I been told by someone at work if they do collect him/her they will wring its neck as its no use to them if it doesn't fly home . Any ideas or advice greatly accepted :)
 

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
We had a similar thing happen. We rang the owner who was miles away and he made it quite clear he was not going to travel to pick it up. It seems a strange hobby when the bird seems to be disposable, the minute it doesn't return.
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
This pigeon walked in to our house on Sat evening and has been here since , although he now in the garden , fed and watered ,. I contacted the lost pigeon people who said he prob tired , but No one has rang back to arrange a collection , now I been told by someone at work if they do collect him/her they will wring its neck as its no use to them if it doesn't fly home . Any ideas or advice greatly accepted :)
This happened to my sister last Friday, her bloke found a racing pigeon. They took it to the Shires vets in Stone, it had been injured or they would have just let it go. The receptionist there said that because it had been 'out of action' for a few hours, there was every possibility that it would be killed.
 

Spelunker

Well-Known Forumite
There was one in the Swan beer garden on Saturday that was clearly a racer who didn't want to move on.
It might have been the meteorological conditions that foxed them.
Its a shame that they become worthless to their owners if they mess up.
 

kilmaccumsey

Well-Known Forumite
Oh no poor thing , it's on my roof now , god knows what to do about it , does anyone know if it will survive if I leave it ??
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Awww, poor pigeon :(

I've seen quite a few in town with rings on their legs . mixing in with all the others.
 

monkey bidness

Well-Known Forumite
Chance are that it will survive. Many of these racing pigeons join their feral cousins and you can see evidence of this in the 57 varieties of colouring in any gathering of pigeons in public squares throuoghut the land.
In theory, any racing pigeon owners racing their birds under the auspices of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association have a strictly limited amount of time within which arrange collection of any of their birds which are reported found by non-fanciers (you and me). Several years ago I was involved in the business of repatriating lost/stray pigeons and I am sorry to say that the friend who told you about straying birds having their necks wrung immediately on receipt was correct. To many owners a bird which gets lost is a waste of money / inferior breeding stock and not worth it's corn.
Pigeon racing is a very serious business and the birds are a commodity and there is no room for sentiment.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Mike Tyson is a pigeon fancier.

It is possible that not a lot of people know that - or perhaps they do.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
We've had 2 very tired racing pigeons in our garden the last two years. if they go off course they get tired and thats when they land. It doesn't mean they will automatically get killed by their owner, both the ones we found we managed to return to their owner, and both men were very happy to get their birds back - one was to race again, the other was retired to stud as he was an older bird. What stuck on my mind was the way those men handled their birds with such affection.

Can you tempt the bird close enough with some maize to catch it? This is what we did, slowely gained the birds confidence and fed it maize (the type you use for pop corn) until it was close enough to grab. Having got the ring number we kept the bird safe in the cat carrier with food and water.

Once you have the ring number you can go to this website and follow the instructions: http://www.homingpigeons.co.uk/lostpigeon.htm Only do this once you have caught the pigeon!!

Both owners who came to get 'our' pigeons travelled some distance and gave my little girl a fiver for her trouble, hardly the action of someone who was going to ring the pigeons neck imo.

Good luck, let us know how you get on!
 

Serendi

Active Member
Why not get a bag of sunflower seeds, a plastic bowl and feed and water it. I had one visit my garden for a couple of years and it was almost like a pet to me, even had it eating out of my hand once. Once he knew I was going to feed it it was in the garden all the time but it left when it got dark.
 

kilmaccumsey

Well-Known Forumite
Ok I got sunflower seeds !! He still on the roof next door. I think he will come back down later . I don't mind keeping him its just the dog not happy :(
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks for that , I think he is next door but if he comes back ill catch him and contact them again

Once you've caught him and entered his ring number into the website, it comes up with the owners details incl email and phone number of the birds owner. I just rang the number and spoke directly to the owner. Both were very grateful to hear their birds were safe and collected them within 24 hours.
 

Crimsonfox

Well-Known Forumite
This is better than watching TV, the suspense is killing me. Good luck!

And I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up yet

 
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