Saturday 27 July 2013

Pigeon post

 
I am not a fan of the (town) pigeon. Devizes is full of them; fat,  lazy, and over-fed, with greedy little eyes and no manners. If you cut a Devizes pigeon, it would be liked slicing through a loaf of Mother's Pride.

But two things puzzle me. One is that every pigeon seems to be differently marked, and this isn't true of most birds. The other is their sound. The normal call goes a bit like this: "Oh, I am so cool; oh, I am so cool".  But nowadays, it seems they're too exhausted to finish the sentence, so they finish with either:  "Oh, I am so -" (abrupt halt), or sometimes just "Oh-"

This is maddening, as I keep waiting for the bit that doesn't come. Is there an explanation for this (GB??)?

22 comments:

  1. I love pigeons! All sorts, even the town ones. I had to laugh about the Devizes pigeons being like a loaf of Mother's Pride! The wood pigeons round here say, "Give me, a kiss; give me, a kiss." The collared doves do a sort of fall/fly from the garage to the wall and say, "Waaa-aaah-eeek!" Maybe yours are too hot to bother saying much at all at the moment :-) x

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  2. My computer printer must be part pigeon. I swear it talks to me...

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  3. I prefer pigeons to seagulls - one took a doughnut out of my mouth on Brighton pier!

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  4. I like the sound of wood pigeons (just as well where I live) but haven't taken much notice of what the town ones have to say.

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    1. Maybe they should just stay in the woods,
      Patsy...?

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  5. Mine are collared doves, but have a similarly perverse sense of rhythm. "I AM a cuckoo, I AM a cuckoo, I -" And then they stop. As a musician, I find this quite frustrating.
    All in all, though, I prefer them to seagulls.

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  6. So far as I am aware all or most birds vary their calls although we tend to have specific calls in our minds which are the calls with which we associate individual species. As for the variation in markings the Rock Pigeon or Rock Dove (which is the one that plagues my garden) is the pigeon from which the feral pigeon which has populated the world is defended. Even rock pigeons vary a bit but the variations in feral pigeons can be, as you pointed out, very significant indeed.

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    1. Exactly the ornithological erudition I expected from you, GB. Thank you.

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  7. The wood pigeons in our garden definitely speak pigeon English.

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  8. I shall have to start to pay more attention to pigeon language...

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    1. I wouldn't bother, DawnTreader. They aren't what they used to be.

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  9. It's seagulls that cause a problem in this area! Some areas are plagued with them. Fortunately we only have wood pigeons...have you thought of looking for a recipe for pigeon pie?

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    1. Yes. Often. But I haven't even got a catapult.

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  10. The call of the common "town pigeon" will, for me, forever be associated with earliest childhood memories, playing in the sandbox my grandparents had set up for us in their garden. It was a quiet, peaceful neigbhourhood; I felt safe and happy with grandma and grandpa always nearby. Still like the sound today.

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    1. I agree that it can be a nice, comfortable sound, Meike. I just wish they'd finish their phrases.

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  11. Laughed aloud at your witty post, Frances. I like the wood pigeons we see now and then but we don't have the other kind visiting where I live. Pigeons and seagulls, however, are a real problem around my daughter's town flat.

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  12. We have seagulls too, Rosemary. What I would like to know is where urban seagulls nest? Or maybe they just don't bother.

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