# Unie Flying



## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

All,

I have posted the story about my blind pigeon Unie who flies. What I didn't include (and probably should have) is some info as to how much she flies. We give her about five sets of 10 to 20 individual flights per day. A lot of them only last a few seconds and some of them last a minute or so. 

Her best flight ever was in a nearby park and she flew out 75 feet, turned on a dime and flew back and then around and around me in a 20 foot circle, about 10 feet over my head. She did about 10 or 15 circles before finally deciding to come down.

Here is a picture of her toodling around the back yard--it was a lot harder to get than I thought because there's a one second delay from when you press the button to when the camera takes the picture. Incidentally, she does a few bottom-bumping landings that kind of break her tail feathers off short through the course of the year. I'll try to take a better one someday after the moult.

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1393366803073664377QTWOSt

Pidgey


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Thank you for sharing the pic, it's priceless, knowing her story.

Reti


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Brilliant photo! Thank you so much for sharing the joy of Unie with us.

Cynthia


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Hi Pidgey, 

Isn't that something! It's amazing really when you think about how Unie's learned how to fly at all, or risk it. You can see her adaptation to flight in a way with how her body is positioned in flight and how her head is angled. I guess when a bird is born blind, they have no concept of ceilings, trees or any other obstacle that might get in their way. So she just goes for broke when she's out on an excursion. Very nice, thanks for this picture


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Yeah, Brad,

You're right--she has made some adaptations. She mostly flies in "landing mode" or the posture a normal pigeon assumes just when they're about to land. We'll never know, of course, but I sometimes wonder if she struggles to hear the "go-go-go"s over the sound of her own beating wings because of that "whiirrring" sound that pigeons and doves make when they're flying. She always used to fly with her feet stuck out and her toes splayed full but she's long since given that up until I tell her she's landing.

She did another funny thing last night. Lin called her name and asked her how she was doing and she replied with an "Ahnh!" She rarely makes any sound. It was like she was saying, "here I am!" Naturally, I HAD to take her flying again.

Pidgey


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Pidgey,

Thanks so much for posting the photo...it's very moving to see her in flight, especially knowing her story...

I just feel like she is so brave, so courageous to fly despite her blindness. Doubtless, if it weren't for you working with her and teaching her, she *would* have spent most of her life in a corner.

Thanks for sharing your inspiring story and photo.

Linda


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## Pete Jasinski (Jan 2, 2005)

*Unie is an inspirational pidgie!*

Hi Pidgey,
That's so heart warming knowing she is leading a full and happy life even though she is blind, as Linda said you saved her from a bleak life of just existing to a life full of joy and happiness and a lot of exercise and mental stimulation. I'd love to see other pics of Unie out and about. 
Thank you so much for sharing her story it was incredible to say the least! That poor girl went through so much and pulled through with flying colors (no pun intended) Reading her story and seeing her pics was definitely a highpoint my day  I must add too she is one stunning pidgie to say the least.
Give her a big hug and kiss for me!


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

*Awesome!!!*

Thanks for sharing the photo and flight information. You both deserve a lot of credit for your courage during the learning process!


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## melissasue1968 (Jun 16, 2005)

Ditto to what everyone else has said. You and she are an inspiration to us all!!!
GO, GO,GO!!!!!!


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Unie surprised me in a couple of ways the last two days. The first time, she was flying around the yard and got snagged in one of those wire tomato support things. She was hovering right by it and it wasn't a violent crash but she ended up standing on the tomato plant itself with one wing over the wire. That in and of itself wasn't particularly eventful. 

But what WAS eventful, is that she was grumbling in a way I'd never heard her do before that was just almost pure human--even her beak seemed to be moving a little. I actually caught myself struggling to catch the words because it seemed SO natural and I KNOW that she was saying, "who the h*** put THAT there?!?"

I gotta' tell ya'll, I almost fell over! Now, there were no true words (don't want ya'll to think I'm... not quite "all there"), but all the same, I caught the meaning as plain as day.

The second thing she did yesterday evening. She took the launch okay, flew out a little bit away, immediately turned full left and flattened OUT and FLEW fast, pulled a 180 before she hit the house and then went to 70% thrust for 20 feet and then hovered... and landed.

I barely maintained consciousness. I think she knew I was in trouble because the "go-go-go!'s" went to "HONEY? What the... Where... YOU'RE GONNA'... <Gasp!> LA-LA-LAND!!!"

We had to go in the house after that so I could nurse a beer. Sometimes, she really gets me, ooooohhh, boy, but she REALLY gets me!

Pidgey


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Wow!

Phil
lasvegas


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## Victor (Dec 18, 2004)

That is truly one brave and incredible pigeon.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Pidgey,

Absolutely priceless.....

Why don't we continue this thread as an addition to the sticky thread, maybe we should merge the two threads....mmm

Should we?

Treesa


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Holy cow! Don't know if you're going to survive this!! 

Seems like she is letting you know she wants to fly FAST. Is there somewhere you can take her where this might be safer? Since she could travel out of voice range very quickly, is there something more penetrating(whistle?) which you could use to supplement your voice as a point of reference? Having done this once, she is probably going to try again. Good luck!!


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Good idea Terri


Perhaps a football field or a school yard would work nicely for a bigger flying range and with a whistle if she'll respond to it


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I have thought of taking her out to a football field but I've always been a little nervous about it. I do take her to the park in my neighborhood occasionally, though, and it has a larger open area.

Anyhow, she's recently learned another "heart-stopping" trick. It's so fast that I haven't quite been able to figure out what she's up to but I got a real good look today. This is tough to explain so you're just going to have to read real hard.

What she does is hover and then somehow performs a powered, side-crabbing loop. It's like a plane doing a "barrel roll" except she doesn't go forward. She'd been doing them for some time now but they've been too fast for me to quite see it--it's almost a blur.

But today, it was like stop-action photography because I had the perfect view (dark background--we were facing a different way due to the wind) and I SAW her at the top of the arc, completely UPSIDE DOWN! She was in the perfect flight attitude for straight and level flight, only inverted. Her keel was pointed as straight up as the sun at high noon.

Mind you, she didn't stay that way very long because she was under full lift which means that she was heading in an arc downward at alarming speed. And THAT'S where my heart failed. Now, she didn't hit the ground, but she usually darn near does it because she BARELY gets righted by the time she's about to hit it. 

Usually. She has hit fairly hard but it hasn't seemed to bother her but it's kinda' hard to tell. Anyway, I finally figured it out today. I wish I could take a picture but I'm shaking too bad to keep from blurring the picture while she's doing it.

Pidgey


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

*What a Bird!*

I never tire of hearing about Unie's adventures! She is something else!

You've never mentioned anything other than voice commands. Would something like a whistle be helpful now that she seems to becoming more adept? Seems like it would be helpful whenever she was flying further away.


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## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

Hi P-t-P,

I must say that your contribution to this site and to improving the quality of life for pigeons in general is truly remarkable. I don't doubt that you will fully grasp the mechanism of his ability to navigate without sight and be able to expand on it in the future, probably w/benchmark results.

fp


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, it's official--Unie's a stunt pilot! I suppose that she's decided that since the flights are typically relatively short, there's just no point in not having fun with them. So, she does these barrel rolls fairly often. I was flying her with a pretty good wind yesterday and they really are barrel rolls. Sometimes she manages to get in a couple before she's run out of altitude.

She actually hit in such a way about two weeks ago that she got a light sprain or something on her two-toed foot. She used her other foot to stand for almost a week while the hurt one turned a little bit blue. I didn't fly her during that time and so we just went on walks and did chores while I carried her under her chest. She got used to that but she let me know when she was ready to start flying again. Everything's back to normal and she's a happy camper when she's doing crazy stunts and stopping my heart.

It may interest you to know that she's 1/4 Pidgey (the true Pidgey, my first rescue) and 3/4 homer. Pidgey, while feral, may have some Birmingham roller blood in her. She used to do some spectacular things while flying that I never was able to figure out but had some strange aerobatic twists that the other feral birds didn't seem to do. Pidgey has white wings. 

Since Unie has one white wing and one black wing, I was wondering if she's got one roller wing and one homer wing and the roller wing likes to do stunts which the homer wing doesn't want to do which may be why she does barrel rolls instead of full forward rolls? I did try to take a movie of it and the camera doesn't have the speed to really get it--it's just too fast. I really need one that'll do high speed auto-advance stop-action stuff with good resolution to boot. This has to be seen to be believed.

Pidgey


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## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

Pidgey said:


> Mind you, she didn't stay that way very long because she was under full lift which means that she was heading in an arc downward at alarming speed. And THAT'S where my heart failed. Now, *she didn't hit the ground, but she usually damn near does it because she BARELY gets righted by the time she's about to hit it. *
> *Usually. She has hit fairly hard but it hasn't seemed to bother her but it's kinda' hard to tell*.
> This has to be seen to be believed.
> Pidgey


Sounds like one for the record book.

With the crashes into the house & ground that you mention she has endured, aren't you worried that eventually this sport may become hazardous to her health & eventually take it's toll?  

Cindy


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Every single flight she takes, Cindy. Every single flight she takes. 

I am compelled to balance the exuberance that she gets out of doing it against the palpable loss of the joy of life when she doesn't get to fly for extended periods--she gets visibly cranky. Our little exercise isn't quite the same thing as an overachiever dad out pushing his kid beyond the kid's abilities. 

I'm constantly formulating strategies to enforce more sane flying and she occasionally obliges. I do choose the broadest expanse of the tallest, softest grass and sometimes conduct very low altitude flight sessions to "trick" her into worrying about the concept of "limited and uncertain altitude". She has sometimes responded by doing one of those sideways rolls at an altitude of one foot. It's a pity that the avian beak is fixed because I'd swear she'd smirk at me after one of those.

Most of the time she's flying so slow that a crash isn't of any real consequence. There was ever only one time almost two years ago now when she actually hit something hard and she's never tried to do what she did that time again. Most of my fears are based on how delicate bird's legs and feet appear balanced against what stresses they have to endure. I think she knuckled a toe under and that's what hurt her foot.

But, ultimately, we didn't know where this experiment was going to end when we started and she's certainly gone a lot further than I ever imagined. I originally just wanted her to get the necessary exercise--she's the one who decided to make it fun. I'd feel like Nurse Ratchet taking it away from her so I'm trying to do what I can to make it as safe as possible. As long as she doesn't dream up some even-more-death-defying stunt, I think we can manage with this trick.

Pidgey


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

*YAHOO, Unie!*

You GO girl - show 'em how it's done! Unie is definitely one of a kind!


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

What a lucky pigeon to have someone who cares enough to spend quality time with her. It is remarkable what Unie can do. The cowardly part of me says "don't do it anymore" while the understanding part says "go to it". She obviously gets a lot of pleasure from these flights. maggie


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Unie is a very fortunate bird to have you, Pidgey - and she is an amazing little gal!!!

John


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Oh man, thank goodness for hair dye, for if Unie was mine, I would certainly have a full head of gray hair!!!

I'm glad Unie gets the chance to enjoy flying, but I'm sending extra special wishes that ALL her landings be soft and cushy!

Linda


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## Larry_Cologne (Jul 6, 2004)

*Unie flying with sound refernces*

Something to consider: What if you had a three sources of sound to which Unie could orient to (other than your voice). You may have considered this already. I am thinking of clickers sounding continuously (via 3 speakers, or 3 portable radios, or three mechanical wind-up clickers at different volumes, diferet frequencies, or whatever. The devices could be added simultaneously to your vocalizations. The sounds could be produced by a keyboard synthesizer (cricket sounds, mechanical typewriter keyboard sounds, for example). The effect would be similar to that of a bat emitting a high pitched sound and using echo location. you would be providing an additional sound reference for triangulation which would not have to interfere with or replace your voice and the sounds of Unie´s own wing flaps. Hope this isn´t too muddled or garbled in presentation. I have trouble with this keyboard. Much re-typing. A simple way to place the sound sources could be done with a standard length of cord or rope, making a triangle, and perhaps establishing an easily identifiable base line. Someone with airplane piloting experience might have useful suggestions. The set-up could be replicated at open fields or arenas, besides just at home.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

*Snow Angel*

Occasionally, Unie likes to zoom down and do "touch and go" landings. It almost seems like a bounce when she does that. Anyhow, this one left an interesting print in the snow that I hadn't seen before. It looks kinda' like a snow angel but I expect that she thinks of it more like she's engaged the TFR (Terrain Following Radar) and set for 0 feet, hard ride, "nap of the earth" flying. She just knows she's the hottest blind ace on earth. I can tell.

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1519568632073664377ZHCNBG

Pidgey


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

It is like she left her autograph in the snow. What a great picture. 

I hope Unie is okay after her "hard ride."


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## dnrslucky1 (Oct 13, 2005)

Pidgey,

Tell Unie, I have explained these amazing feats to Squidget, in hopes it may inspire him to do better!

Congratulations Unie!

Denise


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Totally amazing Pidgey and Unie!

Terry


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

*I am sooooo glad*

to hear that Unie is continuing her flying! Wow, snow....what's that?? Only teasing - lived there, done that... 

Do you take Unie to the same places to fly? Now that the cold weather is settling in, how often does she go flying? Does she have a mate? Has she ever laid eggs? Any possibility of an updated picture of her just standing?

Sure wish a movie could be made of Unie...would rank up there with ANY of the animal Oscar winners!!


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Unie mostly flies in the back yard and she does about 50 flights a day, weather permitting. The only weather she doesn't fly in is excessive winds and hard rain, othewise she has to fly in the house or the garage.

But it's not a good thing when she doesn't get to fly. Very bad. Ugly.

As to mates, she doesn't seem to care much for other pigeons. Whenever one's near her in the incubator or in a box, her wing gets to ticking if they disturb her listening to the radio. She hasn't laid any eggs but its so hard to say seeing as how she spent a goodly portion of her childhood pretty messed up and on Baytril besides.

And she could be a he. I'll never know, I expect. But Unie's voice isn't like other pigeons. The Baytril had quite an effect on her growth--she weighs in just a tad over 200 grams, less than half her mother's weight. Yes, I'll post a portrait photo or two of her one of these days.

Pidgey


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## Larry_Cologne (Jul 6, 2004)

*Unie, the blind flying pigeon: an inspiration for all of us, and many others?*

Walt Disney has their animated film of the pigeon "Valiant" out now. I haven't seen it here in Cologne, but have seen some internet film clips on the Disney website. 
It seems to me that Unie ranks near the top for bravery. Your photo of Unie flying was wonderful and inspiring.
Maybe some local journalist would be interested in capturing Unie on video for the benefit of the general public. It could be tremendous publicity to help people in their awareness of the beauty of pigeons. 
I would like to locate someone here with a video camera to capture the interesting moments of sharing an apartment with a 4-month-old (teen-age) pigeon and my wife whom he feels a lot of affection for.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Larry,

Unie doesn't know she's brave--she thinks flying is fun! She's thumped hard a few times but, come to think of it, so have I. 

Here's another picture of her for the Christmas season--a close-up of her and her Christmas tree:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1530781594073664377QCIsRJ

Pidgey


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

*Hi Unie!*

SO nice to meet you up close and personal! You are a beautiful pigeon and an inspiration to blind pigeons everywhere!  

Talk about all the comforts of home...REALLY nice "pad!"

Many thanks for the updates Pidgey!


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## Poulette (Feb 5, 2002)

Lovely Pidgey! Tigeon had a chistmas tree too last year.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/230688832/230689300zvoCdR

This year, he is busy on his nest with his stuffed dove and did not enjoy me putting the tree in their house! He tried to destroy it like a spider creature 
Suz.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Unie certainly is surrounded with a wonderful Christmas decor...and she has a nice tree there, Pidgey.  



...and Tigeon also has a beautiful tree., Suz.  


Boy, if Skye sees their Christmas trees & decor he will want one too! LOL


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## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

Hi Poo,

That's a great picture of Unie, she's really quite beautiful. I'm hoping that maybe you can use a site like the one that BKLowe used recently and post a video of her flights as well.

Poulette, thanks for sharing your pic as well, looks like those two have better
decorations than I do  !

fp


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## Larry_Cologne (Jul 6, 2004)

*Xmas picture of Unie, and Xmas picture of Tigeon.*

Wonderful pictures! I just now got to see them. Nice to see a picture of Unie up close. We are such visual creatures. We see a picture of some one and we feel we know them so much better than before we had that image of them in our mind. 

While looking at the two wonderful photos, the one of Unie and his Xmas tree, and the one of Tigeon with her (his?) Xmas tree, a thought occurred to me: why didn't my wife and I do a Xmas tree for our five month old rescued and hand-raised male pigeon Wieteke? Then I remembered what happened a couple of weeks ago. 

My wife Hilde was going to decorate our apartment. She put up some colored lights and got out a few tree decorations to see what to do with them. Wieteke was sitting on the ground, next to my wife. 
Hilde picked up a shiny, silvered glass bird (a very common tree ornament probably made in Taiwan, like many thin and fragile glass ornaments which Americans and Europeans have been buying since the 1950s or 1960s, the size of a parakeet, mounted on a spring which clips to a Christmas tree branch, the neck and wings painted with colorful scarlet and blue, and with a spray of transparent flexible fiberglass filaments for a tail). 
Hilde made a peeping sound and had the little glass bird peck the ground, and said "Look, Wieteke, a little friend for you" (in Flemish). Wieteke became very afraid, fluffed up his feathers, attacked the ornament with pecks and made territorial noises. Hilde hid the bird quickly, and Wieteke trembled for fifteen or twenty minutes afterwards. He was definitely afraid, not angry. A bad and frightening experience for him.

He had been doing a lot of nesting activity the past month and a half, cooing for my wife to check out the nest sites, getting upset when she went out at night, getting excited when she returned. He courted the females on the street outside but despite perserverance and very vocal insistence couldn't get them to come through the open window into our apartment to check out the many wonderful nest sites he had discovered. I'm not too sure what he thought the little glass bird was: a freak of nature, a product of his nesting activity which didn't seem to fit in with the natural sequence of what he expected? An alien which was going to take over his territory, with the seemingly explicit approval of my wife? Something that didn't go through a normal egg-laying and nest-warming and hatching, something from a non-existing egg? 

I had brought home a weak street pigeon a week before, and let it fly off the next day after some good food and a quiet night, and after its poops went from skimpy and dark green and runny to nice and firm and healthy looking overnight. I had read in a post from (pidgey, or pdpbison?) that if he (the poster) was able to go up to and pick up a weak feral pigeon, it was usually too late to help the bird, which often died within a day or so. The pigeon looked very healthy and wanted to leave. I thought maybe this pigeon was simply very tired and hungry, since feeding street pigeons is forbidden. After the pigeon saw Wieteke sit on our shoulders and peck my hands, it no longer felt too threatened by us, but it knew that the house belonged to Wieteke. Wieteke had wanted to chase it out of the apartment the day I brought it home. Perhaps Wieteke felt his status and territory threatened.

So, why the strong reaction from a pigeon to an inanimate ornament? Do we humans sometimes do the same? Wieteke had to make do with colored Xmas tree lights, a string of which we aleady had hanging around the large mirror for the past several years. And, he had some good food.

I hope to see more pics of Unie and all the other (unsuspecting?) virtual inhabitants of this website, and real co-inhabitants of our hearts and feelings. 

If Unie doesn't have to consider whether what he is doing is brave, that is fantastic! Doing that which needs to be done can be mundane or extraordinary or brave or reckless or perhaps all of the above, and maybe sometimes require no thought whatsoever. The ability to experience and to do gives us the possibility to be aware and to be feel gratitude for what we have been given. After all he has been through, Unie having fun is what we all wish for him. His is a success story.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Larry, enjoyed your post about Wieteke and the christmas ornament. He sounds thoroughly spoiled. Pigeons have so many endearing things about them. I even love it when they bite me!

Maggie


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, Larry, 

There you have it--a diagnosis! You've SPOILED that pigeon! That's something that we here at PigeonTalk take a dim view of. None of US have EVER spoiled a pigeon, no, no, no! That's bad, bad, bad. It's not SpoiledPigeonTalk, now, is it?

Excuse me, but Unie absolutely insists on tea and crumpets at 2:00 PM and I'm late...

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, Unie got to do something a little out of the ordinary today. I was flying her this afternoon and I saw a motion overhead--it was that miserable hawk that's always trying to get my birds, feral and domestic. Turns out he was up in the tree overhead just watching Unie. 

The trap that the licensed hawk trapper had left me has a section underneath that nothing can get into and I didn't have any bait in it at the moment so I put Unie in there. Since she can't see, she wouldn't get horrified at the sight of a hawk in the upstairs compartment. I went inside to watch and the hawk came down within ten minutes (he's currently sitting in the house). Unie was blissfully ignorant of the whole ordeal and thought nothing of it. Here's his picture:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1543528414073664377Jpkgld

The real shock of the deal was when I called the trapper and found out that he'd died on the 3rd of January! He was about 80, had emphysema and was on oxygen. He probably weighed about 80 lbs for that matter. His son is still in it, so maybe I'll hear from him tomorrow. It's so weird because I talked to him either the day that he died or the day before.

Pidgey


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Holy cow!!!  
That was quick thinking on your part, but still scarey!!
Sure hope the trapper's son can help you out with the hawk.


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

I am sorry to hear about the trapper dying. Hopefully his son is able to get the hawk.

However, if the son can't get to you for awhile, what will happen to the hawk? I know he's a predator and you don't want him to get your pigeons and I don't think they eat non-live prey (?)...so what will you do with him? 

I feel between a rock and a hard place...don't want pigeons hurt but don't want the hawk to starve...he seems like quite a handsome speciman...


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## Pikachu23739 (Jan 6, 2006)

Pidgey said:


> All,
> 
> I have posted the story about my blind pigeon Unie who flies. What I didn't include (and probably should have) is some info as to how much she flies. We give her about five sets of 10 to 20 individual flights per day. A lot of them only last a few seconds and some of them last a minute or so.
> 
> ...


*aww... poor pigeon that is blind hope it has good senses*


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Oh, no need to worry about the hawk, he's already had some raw chicken this morning (actually going through it right now like a buzz saw through balsa wood). There's another trapper (probably several) here in town that will take him if the son doesn't want him but even if that didn't work, I'd just release him at the same place that the trapper told me he'd take him. About the only reason that I was going to bother the trapper to haul him off was that the trapper actually wanted him because he wanted to study him for awhile seeing as how he was a "late passage migrater" or something like that. I didn't understand what he was talking about.

Pidgey


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Unie deserves some special treats & big hug for going into the trap, even though it didn't stress her I commend her for being such a brave little hen, and please reward her with her favorite treat, if you haven't done so.

Hope the hawk is released in a far away location.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Very scary stuff, Pidgey! Good thing you had the hawk trap handy. Unie probably deserves the medal of valor for her part in this!

Terry


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

Yes, indeed, Unie deserves her treats and kisses! I bet she wonders WHY she's getting all this 'extra' attention. Being put in that 'new' home for a short while, sure didn't seem to be any big deal!  Mmmm, on second thought, could she have possibly _smelled _ the hawk?

Mr. Hawk sure got a surprise to find his "free" meal wasn't available!

How do you know he won't come back once released? Have you seen any other hawks in the area? Falcons? Be interesting to know if the son knew what his father was talking about IF you can contact him.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

The only way to treat Unie is with more flying! She might have been able to smell the hawk because he does have bad breath but only if she were downwind.

The son did know quite a bit. Apparently, they work under a "falconer's license" which isn't quite what I was thinking. I thought the dad had a license more like a certified rehabber and was able to relocate raptors that bothered folks' activities. Anyhow, when a bird like that doesn't migrate when it should, it's believed that there's a fundamental difference in the brain and the father wanted to prove that it (late passage) was trainable because he believed that they were. That's why he wanted this specific bird. Bless his heart, his son told me that he didn't want to die during the holidays so he must have tried to hang on until they were over. He just barely made it, but he did.

As it happened, the son was away this weekend to a falconer's meeting down in Texas with the other fellow that I could have called to trap this bird. I took the bird over this evening and he called the other fellow to tell him about it. He said to keep it because another falconer's bird "wasn't out of the woods yet." That bird has a clogged sinus on one side that sounds like an upper respiratory infection or trichomoniasis. So, he's got the bird now and we weighed it--537 grams. Hell, I've had pigeons that weigh more than that and the fellow said that he (this Cooper's hawk) was a "fat boy". Anyhow, he may end up learning to work with humans. As long as he doesn't show up back here.

Pidgey


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Glad you were able to get the hawk to his new home. Did you get a chance to see where they keep their birds?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I didn't get to see it with daylight but they're obviously pens more like a small kennel than anything else. The bird I saw was sitting on a ring in the middle. There was something like a house in the back but it was too dark to make out any real detail.

Pidgey


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

Well, I sure hope the Hawk will be OK and get good care! Sometimes, one never knows...he may not weigh much but that hawk was a handsome bird.

I have a lot of respect for those predators. They are really spectacular birds. I always make sure I watch the Bird Show that is put on every year at the Renaissance Festival. The idea is to show how these birds hunt and attack their prey and also let people know about them (no 'live' birds are used as bait!). These birds are "trained," in a sense, for the show but are not pets. Seeing these birds up close and personal can be quite a sight. 

Of course, Mr. Squeaks will always be "my guy!"

Hopefully, Unie will now have fun and carefree flights! Fly in peace, Unie!


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Funny Unie story: Got home this evening and asked Unie if she wanted to go out flyin'. She stepped up on in answer so we went outside. As we were going to our normal spot, she said something, like that time she got caught in the wire tomato plant support. I heard it distinctly--she said, "&%#$!!! IT'S COLD OUT HERE!!!"

At least, that's the image that came up in my mind quite strongly, anyhow. It's about 15 F here right now and falling.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I always hold my hand in front of her and say, "C'mon, sugar, ya' wanna' go flyin'?" to which she steps up on my hand. That's how it's always been and it's in her story. I thought about it when I was typing that but was in a hurry.

Pidgey


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Hmmm, I get the same response when I open the door for our little dog to go out, if it's cold, dark, or rainy...in other words, most of the time around here!  Glad to know Unie has great sense!


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