Yesterday I took a birding trip to the Lough, a lake a short distance from my house. The main attraction of the Lough is the water birds, such as mallards, herring gulls, black headed gulls, and at certain times of year the water will be absolutely full of tufted ducks. On the grass and trees surrounding the lake you’ll often encounter wood pigeons, jackdaws, and rooks. And also a very large population of feral pigeons. Often times they’re not the most well loved birds, but I love feral pigeons. I find their vocalizations to be very soothing, and the fact that they often congregate in very urbanized areas mean they bring some wildlife into even the most heavily populated cities. So yesterday at the Lough, I saw a feral pigeon who’s behaviour interested me, so I decided to take a closer look.
The feral pigeon wasn’t doing anything interesting as we would normally think of it. It was just a case of the bird was just, relaxing, or so I thought, just sitting there between the roots of a big tree. And this will often catch my attention, because I like to find out what birds do to relax. So I got a bit closer, to take a closer look at the bird, but it didn’t take long to realize that something was seriously wrong.
The pigeon all of a sudden flipped onto their back. This was indeed very odd behaviour, but I briefly wondered was it possible to help the bird by picking them up and positioning them back on their feet? I moved my hands towards the bird, but they flipped onto their stomach, then onto their back, then onto their stomach, they did this several times.
There was no doubt about it, this bird was in need of help.
I had seen similar behaviour from a shrew several years before. At the time I took out my phone and looked up the behaviour, and by all accounts, the shrew had a very serious illness. Incidentally, I regret not doing something to help the shrew, but I was afraid that whatever illness they had was contagious. But this time was different. I still had that fear, that the bird had an illness that close proximity would cause me to contract, but this time, I was going to do anything I could to help the bird. The thought kept entering my head, “What if it’s contagious” and every time I just said to myself, “If you have symptoms tomorrow, just go to the doctor, it’ll be fine.”
While observing birds and other wildlife has been a big passion of mine for the last two and a half years, my knowledge of how to actually help animals in distress is quite limited, so I got out my phone and contacted Wildlife Rescue Cork. If you live in Cork and you notice an animal who is injured or in distress, get in touch with them and they will advice you on what to do. I can’t thank them enough for the help they gave with helping the pigeon and as well as all the work they have done to help animals over the years. Here is their website:
I was advised to try and place the pigeon in a cardboard box with a blanket or towel in it. I went to a nearby buisiness and obtained one, but the bird simply did not want to get in. Every time I got near the pigeon, they would flip onto their back, then other their stomach, and then onto their back again. I thought I could at least make sure the bird is warm, so I took off my hoody and placed it on top of the bird, covering them from the neck down.
Wildlife Rescue Cork contacted me and told me a volunteer would be around soon to collect the bird and give them the medical attention they needed. I felt very relieved by this, but also a bit apprehensive. While I hoped very much the pigeon could be helped, based on the symptoms I was seeing, my best guess was that this was an incurable illness and that there wasn’t really any hope of saving the bird. I hoped for the best, but was very worried for the poor creature all the same.
Several passers by also stopped to help the bird in various ways, and even though I never learned their names, and even though they’ll probably never read this blog, all the same I’d just like to say, thank you to all of the people who helped make sure the pigeon was as safe and as comfortable as possible. Frustrated by my efforts to get the pigeon into the box, two people went to another buisiness and got a bigger cardboard box for the pigeon to go in, maybe the bird would be more comfortable in that. I tried to get the pigeon into this bigger box, but still, the bird just kept, flipping onto their back, and onto their stomach, and so on and so forth. It should have dawned on me at this point that this WASN’T a similar illness to the one that the shrew had several years ago. The shrew was moving in a very odd way, but at completely random intervals, while the pigeon was moving as a specific reaction to me getting too close. No, this was something else, but it hadn’t quite clicked with me yet.
I managed to calm down the pigeon enough so that I was able to actually pick them up, but, I couldn’t get them into the box, because, the pigeon was stuck somehow. Were they getting caught on my hoody? No, that wasn’t it. And then me, and the other people who had stopped to help, FINALLY realized what was going on.
The pigeon was caught in fishing wire, one end of it had snared the pigeon, and the other end had gotten embedded in the ground somehow. How the fishing wire became stuck in the ground I’m not sure, my best guess is it rained, and one end of it sank below the soft ground, but after a few dry days the ground hardened once more, holding the fishing wire fast, and leaving a horrific trap in place for any animal that was unlucky enough to get too close.
The vast majority of animals have some level of fear of humans. While feral pigeons are often quite comfortable around humans, often walking our streets with us as our fellow pedestrians, get too close, and they will often run away, or fly away. And I realized, that that had been the reason for the pigeon’s strange movements. The bird was trying to evade capture, as far as they were concerned, I was some giant animal with less than benevolent intentions, but the usual strategy of flying away, or running away, wasn’t working because of the fishing wire. So they seemed to come to the conclusion that if they kept making very rapid, odd, movements, they would never be taken prisoner by this strange human. And they were right! I never managed to get the pigeon into either of the two boxes I was provided with!
Now that we knew what was wrong, we could address it. I was given a scissors, and I removed the bird from their horrific prison. I was expecting the pigeon to be so injured, and so exhausted by their ordeal, that they would just continue to just lie there and would need medical attention. But it looked like, thankfully, despite the obvious distress and terror that the bird was put through by the fishing wire, that they weren’t badly injured, so, in a flash, they just took to the air and flew off, and I’ve no idea where they went!
So that was a relief. The bird was, near as I can tell, absolutely fine. Physically at least. It must have been absolutely atrocious to be held in place by fishing wire for all that time, so we’ll never know how upsetting it was for the poor bird. But at least now they are free, and their horrible experience is over.
Incidentally, I was advised by Wildlife Rescue Cork afterwards not to free the bird myself if I encounter this situation again, as I did, but to wait for them to arrive so that they can assess whether or not the bird needs medical attention. So I’ll bear that in mind if I encounter another bird in distress in future. But they also told me that the fact that the bird was able to fly away was a very good sign, so hopefully they had very few, if any, injuries.
It was a relief that the bird didn’t have any serious illness, but rather was just temporarily trapped, and can now go on to live their life, making those adorable feral pigeon sounds that bring me so much happiness. But while I am relieved for this bird, there is also, to be honest, a lot of rage. This DIDN’T need to happen. If whoever had been fishing that day had taken the time to dispose of their fishing wire more carefully, this would never have happened. And this is the second incident I’ve encountered where a bird suffered because of fishing wire. A few years ago, I noticed a beautiful gosling with a limp. I contacted the CSPCA and they explained what happened. The gosling was caught on fishing wire, but fortunately the CSPCA were able to give him medical treatment in time. He’ll always have a limp, but he could have easily lost the leg, due to that blasted fishing wire.
I think of what a horrible death that poor pigeon could have easily suffered. Remember, when I first saw the bird, I thought they were merely relaxing. If a herring gull, or a greylag goose, or a jackdaw, or one of the many other birds at the Lough that I love so much had caught my attention at that exact moment, I may have gone to have a look at what they were up to instead and thought of the distressed pigeon no further. If I hadn’t decided to have a closer look at the pigeon, and observed their strange movements, it would never have occurred me that they were in distress. Maybe other people would have noticed, but I don’t know. And that’s what haunted me afterwards. A poor bird, stuck to the ground, unable to get food or water, all alone, because, of, fucking, fishing wire!
I know fishing is a popular activity in the Lough, and yes, I know that not everyone who fishes at the Lough is careless and thoughtless enough to just leave fishing wire lying around. But this is an ongoing problem, and it needs to stop. The idea that animals are dying, for no other reason than people are literally just throwing their rubbish on the ground without a second thought, should be deeply offensive to anyone with any kind of morality whatsoever. The pigeon, and the greylag from a few years ago, were the lucky ones. How many have died because of people who are just too thoughtless to clean up their rubbish after them?
So I’ll just finish by once again thanking Wildlife Rescue Cork for all their help with making sure this pigeon was okay. One of their members actually fought horrendous traffic in order to get out to us before I cut the pigeon free, and I do feel bad that she made all that effort when I just in-advisably freed the bird myself anyway. But next time I’ll know to let Wildlife Rescue Cork free the bird themselves so that they can check the bird for injuries.
Thanks again to all the other people who were at the Lough that day who helped the pigeon in any way. It gives me great hope for the future that so many people are willing to lend assistance when a defenseless animal is the victim of such a cruel trap. And, if you ever see a bird acting strangely, don’t walk away without further investigation. They just might need your help.
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