To have befriended this bird?

[Tangled59]

I live right in the middle of a market town just off the main square and have a huge rooftop terrace.

I noticed this beautiful pigeon the other day, dont know if the photo does it justice but its a beautiful cream colour. It also has "wristbands" on its feet.

This morning I fed it some bread and it ate out of my hand! It appears to enjoy sauntering around my terrace.

AIBU to have it as a semi feral pet? What can i put out for it (im assuming bread isnt great)? Or is that irresponsible?

I know Hero! She appeared at mine on 5th June and this time last year she was AWOL on her way home....!

How's Praline now Tangled?

Is it just me that is jealous of where the OP lives?

It's a super view with that amazing clock face opposite!

Any news on your feathered friend?

well done op . lovely post. i take bird food with me to my sunday market each week and the gang always come to see me same time every sunday

Where I live there is often anything between twenty and fifty feral pigeons sitting on the roof of the office block across the road (until about 8pm in the summer when the jackdaws take over). I might have to buy some cheap pigeon corn to leave on the garden wall for them. There's no vegetable gardens round here so that's one less concern but I don't want pigeon shit all over the place either. It will be interesting to see if any of them are racing/homing pigeons that have dropped out. I saw a couple of plump beauties sporting coloured leg rings in Ilkley this morning.

A racing pigeon turned up outside my house tonight. My husband thought it was an injured wild pigeon but it made no attempt to move when he stood near it. I remember this thread and guessed it was a racing bird. We rang the number on the tag, left a message and the owner called us back. Hamish, as we are calling him, has been missing for 2 weeks. Owner is going to send a pigeon courier for him. Rescued thanks to Mumsnet!

Several turns ago I had a racing pigeon that perched itself on a corner section of my roof. I rang the racing pigeon association, or something similar and they told me it had probably been blown off course during a recent cross Channel race and that it could take a couple of weeks to recover and reorientate itself. I live about 200 miles NW of the Channel so we thought it must have been well off course. I fed and watered it for a fortnight, while it sat up on the roof like a sodding king, crapping all down the back door and aggravating the cat. One morning it buggered off and that was that, or so I thought.

Turned out that my neighbour, about 20 yards along the street, kept racing pigeons and it was his. Crapping Bird had managed a few hundred miles but got hooelessly lost a matter of yards from home.

Neighbour adored his birds and treated them extremely well. He had little burial plots in his gardens for the ones that died of old age, and certainly didn't wring any necks if they lost races. Drove his poor wife potty!

What an amazing thread. Op did you dp build a box? Did the storm come? Did pralines friend come over again? Did praline survive the storm? Did you line the box?? Updates please!!

Cats are plotters. Take care of praline.

Sadly Praline hasn't returned! She came for 4 days in a row and then one morning just stopped coming. I dont know if she went home or has just decided to go and live somewhere else, but on the last 2 days I saw a huge normal pigeon hanging around so its possible shes been adopted into a group.

Good luck to you wherever you are Praline....may the wind be forever beneath your wings! I like that she just came into my life and...vanished. She reminded me to pay more attention to my natural surroundings despite living in town.

Ah good luck praline where ever you are. Thanks for the update op.

@thecraftyfox did you actually read this thread?

Here is a picture of my escaped racing pigeon with his basic bitch wife and children.

I did read the thread. Seeing as the owner lives over 200 miles away and is paying for a pigeon courier to come and collect Hamish I doubt he'd spend the money to then wring its neck. He was very pleased to hear from us and find his bird. So to you too

Hamish had a wee bath this afternoon and is enjoying some dried lentils