Pigeons: Genus Columba Domestica.

 

Pigeons, preening.

This is an introduction to an unlikely late-flowering love story. When I moved to Bury St Edmunds into a small apartment earlier this year, I found, faute de mieux, that I was living quite close to pigeons. My large terrace in particular, while not a home for them, more a place to visit, is a pigeon vantage point for me. Leaning on this terrace wall, surrounded by roofs, I see and hear pigeons all around. They rarely venture to share the terrace with me, though cast-off grey feathers testify to their presence at other times. But they settle on nearby tiles and roofs, cooing the while in that rolling, roiling, round, surrounding, soothing sound which I have grown to love. As I fix my face and hair, early in the day, standing near my bedroom window, I am entertained by the sight of pigeons, seduced each day by a little water outlet, below the large terrace wall. They virtually start queuing up on nearby tiles, to alight on the tiny platform, often two at once, to peck and perhaps drink, generally from around 7.00 a.m.. And while I watch, I listen to the wonderful murmuring they produce, a communal cooing which envelops the listener in a wholly relaxed warm sound of solace. I feel lucky to start each day thus.

My conversion to pigeon-lover has been relatively recent and sudden. Shamefacedly, I have to admit to long being in tune with Tom Lehrer's clever song, Poisoning Pigeons In The Park. Six months ago when I came to live here, I only saw pigeons as feral and invasive; all around in towns and cities, chiefly despised or barely tolerated; part of the urban landscape and rather annoyingly forever in search of food as they deposited their droppings over pavements and public buildings. Funnily enough, while people dislike what are called feral pigeons, they are simultaneously admirers of so-called homing pigeons which are applauded hugely for their incredible navigational skills. The two groups of pigeons are virtually one. Both are pigeons!

When I was a small girl, local miners were great

A handsome feral pigeon.

pigeon-fanciers and racing pigeons was a popular sport. I always loved it that men who spent their long working lives in the dark labyrinths of the mine below the earth’s surface, just loved pigeons which can fly free for hundreds of miles and then ingeniously find their way back home. Always, creatures of the air and light. Interestingly, pigeons can find their way using smell, landmarks, the Earth’s magnetic field and infrasound [sound waves too low for humans to hear.] They can follow each other and learn routes from each other. They understand human transport routes and often rely on that knowledge for navigation rather than their own internal magnetic compasses. We are still learning about these remarkable birds which mate for life and are attentive parents. They are the descendants of wild rock doves, the world's oldest domesticated bird, adopted by man perhaps 10,000 years ago. Certainly, Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets mention the domestication of pigeons 5,000 years ago as do Egyptian hieroglyphics. Over many centuries, they have been treasured both for food and especially for their supreme navigational skills, valued as particularly useful in times of war as messengers. They thrive now in our cities because our tall buildings and window ledges mimic the caves and cliffs of their original, natural home and they can easily find food from the messy, careless humans below.

Jacobin pigeon.

Our contemporary disdain for feral pigeons was not shared during the mid 1800s when many new breeds were being developed such as Jacobins, fantails, tumblets and barbs. 

Fantail.

Charles Darwin became a pigeon aficionado and used these examples of diversity among one species as part of his explanation of natural selection in The Origin Of Species. Interestingly, I chanced upon a 2009 account from John Murray, Darwin’s publishers, of the 200^th celebration of his birth and the 150^th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work. Six live pigeons apparently featured in the celebrations; definitely I shall investigate as I feel another pigeon-related blog on Darwin and John Murray gestating.

The critical message carried by Cher Ami.

Homing pigeons were used extensively during both World Wars to deliver vital messages between battalions and to fly with tiny cameras for reconnaissance missions. The most famous war pigeon ever was Cher Ami who was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1918 for delivering messages from an encircled U.S. battalion with many badly-wounded men  under heavy fire. He was shot through the breast, blinded in one eye and his right leg was hanging on by a tendon when he delivered his last message. He was one distinguished bird among 32, including G.I. Joe and Paddy, awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal V.C. over the period of the two world wars, for saving human lives. Cher Ami died in June 1919 and his body was preserved at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. 

Iridescent plumage with exquisitely delicate sheen.

Since arriving in my little Bury flat, I have grown to enjoy watching the local pigeons who live so close to me. I now admire their absolutely beautiful plumage; watch their ongoing social interactions and see pairs preening each other rather tenderly. I am charmed by them and was impressed only this morning, early, in the Abbey Gardens, when another walker who was chatting to a park gardener, held up his practised arm for a pigeon to alight and remain in a regal pose! When I expressed astonishment and admiration, he said carelessly, “Happens all the time!”

Mates for life.