I went to Union Square to get a few things yesterday but did not plan to attempt any pigeon destringing as my trusty helper Ben couldn’t come, so I left the net at home. However, I still investigated the pigeon situation to see who was there and immediately saw two birds foraging on the ground, both with stringfoot.
One of the birds was in a bad way – limping, unpreened and generally dishevelled – so I focused on him and miraculously managed to catch him with my bare hands. This is the first time I have ever done that. I have figured out a technique now but I think I was also helped by this poor bird’s ill health or age as his reflexes weren’t as quick as the other birds I’ve tried to catch.
After catching him I was a bit stuck as I hadn’t taken a cloth to wrap the bird in although I did have my destringing kit. A kind lady sitting nearby offered to help and while I was holding the bird she cut away the string. The poor animal was missing several toes already and there were previous signs of constriction on one foot. We removed the remaining string and let him go. He flew off but I wondered if I should have taken him home for a couple of weeks of rest and recovery as his lower tail feathers were covered in excrement which is unusual for pigeons as they’re very good about keeping themselves clean. He had obviously been suffering. I hope he’ll manage ok. I didn’t get any photos unfortunately as I was by myself and didn’t want to subject the pigeon to me fumbling around trying to take a photo with one hand.
In other news Elizabeth has created a trailer for her game, The Cat Dimension. She created the game over 6 months for an A-level EPQ project and it’s very challenging to play particularly for the 50+ age group. I’ve not been able to finish it so I enjoyed watching the trailer as it showed me bits of the game I hadn’t seen. She built it with Unity in C# and drew all the graphics herself. The music in the trailer is from Silksong.
rachel.blog 
Leave a comment