About 12.30pm today Em and I were at home. Em was hand washing a few items of clothes in the kitchen, and I was sitting at the computer editing video. Suddenly there was a loud thud at the kitchen window. It spooked both me and Em and we both thought it must’ve been the little shitty kiddy neighbour and his football hitting the window. But there was also the possibility it might be a bird.
Em went outside to investigate. She initially saw nothing, then on a second inspection she saw a bird in the bramble underneath the kitchen window (not directly under it though, hence he was not spotted the first time). He was a baby pigeon. Still with downy feathers and all grey (no adult plumage/colouring yet). He must’ve only just fledged the nest.
He was obviously alive, but we couldn’t tell if he’d suffered any wing damage. We cleared away some of the dense bramble (really spiky stuff with vines filled with thorns) and cleared a path for him to come back out. He was quite dazed and shocked.
We spent the next 90 minutes outside keeping an eye on him, making sure no cats could get to him. The weather was starting to turn and I was worried that if he got wet he wouldn’t be able to fly. Em got a big box and I slowly made my way towards him in an attempt to catch him and put him in the box. He started to flap and got a little air-born, but only enough to get him to the neighbours fuchsia bush. We tried to coax him out from there. Eventually he ended up on the neighbours front door step. It became obvious that he hadn’t suffered any wing damage as he was beginning to use them. We stepped back and let him have some room and a minute later he took flight and landed on the neighbour opposites roof. At last he was free and recovered. I hope he stayed on safe ground.
