Is it mad to be mates with a pigeon?

[AngelasLastEgg]

I’ve been working in the same place for three years and I’ve seen a very distinctive looking pigeon (mostly white with bits of grey on him) almost every day. I really love seeing him and called him Lord Westbourne as he has an aristocratic look about him (I suspect descended from dove gentry) and he lives on the corner of Westbourne Grove. I always see him in the same three places and have shared a bit of sandwich or cake with him on many an occasion.

Then he went missing for nearly a month, I was gutted and kept looking out for him every day. Well today he’s back!! Just bobbing around as if nothing had happened. Luckily I had a little pre-wrapped Madeline in my handbag that I was able to share with him and the couple of mates he was with.

I know I probably sound unhinged (it has been said) but I really love this pigeon having a slightly rough time at the moment trying to conceive and honestly seeing him today really warmed my heart.

Anyone else notice random birds or animals and look out for them?

Please, no pigeon haters. No one say ‘flying rats’. If you don’t share the pigeon love kindly move along

I love this thread!

Apparently if you feed crows, they will start bringing you back presents. You can then train them by offering better rewards for the presents you like best and they learn over time what you prefer. I think that's fascinating!

I keep feeding birds on our balcony but I never know what to put out and they don't seem to eat all of my experiments

Yes that true about crows and apparently all corvids are capable of facial recognition...and they remember on sight people that have pissed off!

I used to get jays the garden at my old house share, I’d feed them acorns and monkey nuts, beautiful birds.

I saw Lord Westbourne from the bus Window today chilling out up the tree with a load of his pigeon mates

After catching up with this thread, I am so relieved much more people have special connections with their local wildlife - was starting to feel like a crazy bird lady - so I may as well tell you all about the rest of the gang apart from Tony:
There's George and Mildred, the resident seagull pair (lovely manners)
Mark the dunnock
Bob the wren
Ravin' Dave the great tit
Pingu and Ethel the blackbird pair
But my favourites are the robins - we've had Greaser, Erkie, Hood, Dot, Gizmo, Buzz, and currently, Baby Buzz, who is a tyrant, and makes Mark's life a misery
The pic is of Gizmo

I love this thread so much. 💕

My late mum had a whole flock of assorted birdie mates. She fed them by hand (they would literally take the food directly from her hand) every day at the same time and they would wait patiently by the back door for her to appear. My mum was a lovely, gentle person and the birds seemed to sense this. I miss her...

I have a woodpigeon that flies down when i open my back door, he/she will eat peanuts out of my hand and in the summer would sit on my knee to eat them, the squirrels eat/wee on the step

We have a pigeon pair who hang out on our shed roof called Owen Grady and Claire. DS6 chats to them every morning as we leave for school, he has taught himself pigeon language from YouTube videos and they talk back now!

I came across this story 4 years ago. It's recently been made into a film.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2016/oct/13/penguin-bloom-how-a-scruffy-magpie-rescued-a-family

The book is beautiful.

I think this is absolutely lovely and nothing odd (maybe ‘different’). I absolutely adore birds and feel what an honour and splendour it is to love amongst them. Few years ago watched a gull couple (mate I’m for life) protecting them roosting on a nest. I’d hurry home to see if anything had happened. My first sight of the chicks was an absolute joy.
Over lockdown I walked a mile or so most mornings to check out goose nest - weeks of this - came to know those geese well and see them every now and then now round and about.
Regard to Lord Westbourne. He may have been at his country estate for a short visit ?

I should have known because I read it yesterday but I clicked on just now because I misread as Is it mad to be mating with a pigeon.

... as you were everybody...

This was my mate last year :)

He would hiss at me if I got too too close... almost fed with hand, but not quite.

Not seen him this year, not since he was tempted away by a very pretty lady pheasant

Paddington reckons so. His mate is called pigeonton.

I guess you'll have less drama from a pigeon . Sounds like a great friend.

Malcolm the magpie lives near the school where I work. He seems to walk everywhere and really likes Quavers.

Love this thread, just what I needed today. He's a very handsome pigeon

Yeah, it’s a bit mad. But you’re not hurting anyone so I say carry on.

@SquishySquirmy

A bit mad, yes but I'm worse.

We had a massive spider in our house, who didn't move very much when watched but kept popping up in different parts of the house. (s)he generally hung around on the ceiling, so when we first saw him/her we couldn't be bothered to catch them.
Then I became rather attached and gave the spider a name. Kept seeing "Sam" around the house.
Until the day I saw two Sams next to each other. And realised that there were in fact several Sams.

Same here, except our Sam (s) have been named Sid 🤦‍♀️

I used to get regular visits from a robin, who got so used to me that he would come and eat from my hand. So, I totally get it. It was lovely 😊

Lately I’ve been getting daily visits from a group of long tailed tits. I don’t “know” them individually, but they’re pretty friendly. They often come to the window where my desk is. I like to think they’re coming to see me, but they’re more likely to be interested in the small insects and spiders that are hiding there 😄

Outside the Waitrose Bayswater or the bottom of Chepstow by the gallery? For some reason I recognise the pigeon I think (words I didn’t expect to write but there you are!)

I think it's lovely! It's so important to connect with nature, in fact clear links have been made between spending time in nature and improvement in mental health. I recommend reading The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell on the subject.

I feed the birds in my garden everyday, and I talk to the birds if I see them waiting for me to finish replenishing the feeders. It gets me out in to the garden each day, and I enjoy looking out for new flowers, as well as observing the changing seasons. We are also really lucky that our back garden has been visited by hedgehogs every night for several years now. They are an absolute joy to watch, my husband and I have a proper wooden feeding station for them. We've even set up a wildlife camera so we can see what they get up to!

This is a lovely thread and your pigeon friend is indeed very striking!

I have a soft spot for a white duck who lives with all the regular ducks, I wonder where he's come from, was he an escapee? But I'm happy they accept him

I learned a little Spanidh and Romanian to help my rescue dogs settle in. I also rescued a pigeon called Clément in Paris. I took him to vet. He kicked me out. So I got him a place in a pigeon sanctuary in Paris. I took him on the métro in a cat box. People didn't like it. He was very unwell though. He had a virus. He didn't make it. :-(

User Chepstow!! He hangs out there on the corner of Artisian Road, outside the gallery, or in the big tree of that weird big house that guardians live in, and I’ve seen him walk up to the Sainsbury’s too (he doesn’t mind a walk, at all)

I’ve loved hearing all the beautiful wildlife and bird stories, so many to mention and thanks so much for sharing them!! It’s cheered me up.

The sparrow terrace sounds great, really important for sparrows too because they’ve been under threat. London zoo has a huge colony now, and they’ve really embraced them and put a little sign up which is lovely too see. When I took my nephew we spent more time looking at the sparrows and feeding them seed than anything else. Could have saved a packet if we’d done that somewhere free