So this morning I was on my front patio having a cigarette and reading The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.
Out of nowhere there was a thump and the trucks alarm beeped. I walked around the truck and there was a piegon flopping around on the ground.
The bird had fallen out of the sky, hit the truck and then hit the ground. I got a box and gently put the bird in it. I then. tried to find an open vet office which would take the bird. No one would so I called animal control. Sadly. before. animal control showed up the bird died.
Could it have run into a window? Birds do that all the time to my windows on the lake. They are large, and show the reflection of the sky. Most birds are stunned, but get up from the ground and fly away, but not all. They sometimes break a neck and are food for foxes. So far, no windows have been broken.
Living out in rural San Diego county, I’d had lunch on the back porch and then took a nap. When I woke up, I went to the back out to the porch to wake up with the fresh air.
On the ground were four dead California Quail. One male, and three females. Gorgeous creatures as skittish as Don Knotts. Just the same, it startled me–thought someone had been hunting on the property–but then again–wouldn’t I have heard the gunshots this close to the house during my nap?
Gradually it dawned on me they’d been spooked and flown into the window. I called CA Fish & Game, and a nice biologist told me to let the circle of life take its course.
Left the birds about 150 yards from the house. Next morning, they were gone.
A few years back, some neighbors had a hawk try to attack their cat. The cat was asleep on the bed near a sliding glass door and the hawk didn’t notice the door until the last moment. It left a dust print of its body and wings on the glass of the door as evidence of a “holy crap, there’s a window in the way!” full air brake attempt to stop. No hawk was found, so we assumed it wasn’t hurt enough to not fly away. It probably wasn’t a happy camper though…
I think pigeons sometimes just die mid-flight. Heart attacks, maybe? They don’t seem to have the “I’m feeling close to death and I’ll curl up somewhere isolated” instinct that other animals have. Living in NYC, I saw more than one pigeon simply drop out of the sky, and I was walking by one that was idly pecking away before suddenly going into convulsions and dying. A friend of mine was walking down the street and saw a pigeon gliding, wings outstretched, which then crashed landed into somebody’s hair - it was already dead.
I suppose any of those could have been someone poisoning pigeons (or pigeons mistakenly eating rat poison), but it happened enough times that I just accepted it as part of the ecosystem.
If, as sleestaktheorized, the pigeon had been poisoned, leaving it around to be scavenged means that the scavenger, in turn, might be poisoned. Not a desirable outcome, really. And I assume animal control was summoned in the hope of taking custody of a live pigeon. The way I read it, the bird died after animal control was called.
But thanks for watchdogging the expenditures and operations of the unnamed city sleestak lives in. I’m sure we’ll all think twice before using any of the services our taxes pay for. :smack:
In the city I saw a pidgeon attempt to fly under a fast moving car, gross noise and a hideously twisted and bloody bird. Considered trying to put it out of its misery but it died in less than 30 seconds.
Well, that would be your error in logic. Many municipalities track and examine dead birds because they can be resevoirs for such illnesses as West Nile virus. A bird that falls from the sky is a questionable death. Calling, and letting the dept of public health, animal control, or other environmental groups make that call is the smart move.
Owls can leave very detailed prints when they crash into windows. Their feathers are covered with a dusty substance that helps them fly quietly. On impact they can leave quite a bit behind.
