The Sean Chronicles

Pidgeon Karma

So I'm walking back from lunch today, and on the sidewalk near a lightrail station was this pidgeon and he was trying to pull what looked like a seed out of a crack in the pavement.

I walked very close by him and he didn't do anything or even seem bothered by me, so I stooped down, and he was completely unconcerened. He kept trying to get this seed-looking thing out of this crack.

When I looked at him closely he seemed to be in OK health, no apparent signs that I could see. I reached out with my plam facing down and he sort of jumped on and then over my hand, back to the sidewalk and back to the seed.

I came to the conclusion that this bird, in this location, was doomed if he didn't have enough sense to not let people pick him up.

I figured that one out when he let me pick him up.

So now I have this pideon in my hands, and a lady comes over to tell me she had seen the bird on Sunday and Monday. This being Tuesday, I figured dude had no worries. He had survived the cats and homeless for two, almost three, days.

The lady, however, said he couldn't or wouldn't fly away and only walked on the ground and slept under one of the street heat vents. Dude's demise was only a matter of time.

I happened to have an unbound bale of hay in the bed of my truck (don't ask), which is covered by a camper shell, so I carried him out to the parking lot a couple hundred feet down the block and opened the back hatch.

He seemed cool the whole way there, and also happy to be in the sun-warmed space, with toasty straw and a nice side draft. He got right to searching for, and eating, bits of oat hay.

He was fine when I checked on him after work, and when I got home I set him up with a gravity waterer and a slice of banana bread.

He ignored the water but the bread was a hit.

So now I have this pidgeon living in the bed of my truck.

In a miniature rolling barnyard.

I suppose it's way better than sleeping outside: It's certainly warmer and it must be safer. He now has food and water and about 48 cubic feet of space.

I wonder how long it'll be before I can convince him to start using his wings?

Posted by sean at December 6, 2005 11:51 PM