Pigeon

Yesterday, as I was leaving for my parents' to celebrate my mum's birthday, I noticed a pigeon in my back yard. That in itself is not a particularly unusual thing. On Sunday however, it was still there now literally tapping on my window.

As I happened to be seated right beside that window, I could easily see the number on its leg ring. The Dutch organisation of carrier pigeon keepers has a nice little search function on its website that returns the phone number of the person who is the registered owner of a ring. A quick phone call taught me that the registered owner was not in this case the actual owner, but they were kind enough to forward the information.

I fed the pigeon some of my budgies' birdfeed, and received a call not long after. The owner would come by to pick it up. Apparently the bird had lost its other leg ring with a chip inside. This particular pigeon had been missing for well over a month. I wonder how and why its sense of direction failed.

I also wonder whether I would have been able to contact the owner if it hadn't been for the wonders of the internet.