Smoked wood pigeon
December 15, 2007 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Fauna, Wild London, Winter
My computer is squashed right into the corner of the room, up beside the fireplace and chimney breast. The fireplace was sadly boarded up long ago, but often and especially in summer I can be startled by a loud and echoey cooing right at my elbow. The culprits? Our resident wood pigeons, who live on (and perhaps in) the chimney pots pretty much all year round. They don’t come down the chimney – or at least not yet, but their voices are amplified and come out loud and clear right next to where I am working.
These portly and somewhat comical birds lead a peaceful life among the stumpy, pollution raddled trees that fringe the back gardens on our street. But the best and perhaps safest place to roost or soak up a drop of cheerless winter sun seems to be the chimney pots, and pigeons are famed for their liking of these perches. Everyone has a tale about the day a pigeon fell down the chimney and could be heard bumping about inside a bricked up fireplace; I like to think most people prefer to do messy and expensive work to release the unfortunate bird rather than hear it die there. Even the famed Wigan pie-eating contest was put in peril by a pigeon stuck in the flue.
Spring and summer brings the restful sound of incubating birds snoring down the chimney as they sit peacefully on their nests; it’s an odd bubbling noise I haven’t seen adequately described anywhere. I’ve never yet seen their offspring. Perhaps they are eaten by magpies and crows – if this is true, the parents seem to give up their nests without a fight or a sound.
I like to think that once upon a time, when we still had open fires, the pigeons would congregate on chimney tops for extra warmth as well as safety. Perhaps the smoke fumigated their feathers and kept nests free from lice. At any rate, they never lost the chimney roosting habit even after the advent of central heating. I love to think of them huddling there together on winter nights.
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Hahaaa, I listened to the Mp3 in your Wood Pigeon link and I would be frightened out of my skin if there was a sudden sound like that by my elbow! Wonderful photograph and I love reading your writing, it’s colourful and descriptive – takes me right there to see, hear and feel
We get possums stuck in our fireplaces more than anything …
What a cool picture. We don’t have chimneys like that here. Nice story, I’ll have to check out the sound! Neat.
Thanks, Bird in the Meadow, for your comment on my Detroit Blog. What a cool name you have! I love it.
I took those snow pictures early this morning and it’s been snowing ever since so now we have twice as much and it’s still snowing. I hope you get snow to your liking and are safe in it.
I like your banner
LOL! That must be fun in a way to hear that sound coming down the chimney!
or, maybe not.
Hello Anonybird, yes I have to say the first few times I heard that sound I almost fell off the chair. They are noisy in other ways too, they crash about and are pretty clumsy
Thanks for the really kind encouraging words, sometimes I wonder why I am writing but it just comes down to enjoying it, I’m really chuffed that someone else enjoys it too 
…you get possums in your fireplaces? Wow, so on the other side of the world, same problem different animal! Can possums get themselves out again?
Hello Mary, thank you for coming over! I had a quick read through your blog and I am looking forward to reading more, the images are lovely and I like what you have to say about the deer among other things
I am excited at the thought of snow, its been a fairly cold winter by our standards so who knows? And thanks for your kind comments, as a fairly new blogger the encouragement means a lot.
Wow, I hope your snow will stop just at the point where it is still fun but worthy of a day off
Possums get stuck and we choose messy (pulling fireplace apart) rather than expensive work to release them. It could mean a whole night of no sleep beforehand and waiting for them to follow a trail of apple out a window!
Namaste’ Bird, this is a hilarious photo, but amazing too, check out the ol chimney *pots* you have too, wow. This is a VERY interesting story Bird, and LOVE this picture. I am familiar with their sound, and swear I could hear it as I looked at the photo and read your story. And hahahaha thanks for telling me that story about the feral children LOLOLOL, priceless.
Maybe weiners would have worked ;0) I find they are a cure all it seems, at least with wolves, they react better to them than the raw meaty bones given to them.
metta
sky
I love this post. I love your warm personality that radiates out in your writing. So human and gentle natured and…just WARM.
I wondered a couple of things. Birds, like most wild creatures, have amazing genetic memory. Maybe as you said, at one time they roosted on or near the pots because they were warm, but now they go there because their ancestors went there. 2. I also wondered if they went there BECAUSE their cooing sounds were increased in volume which could draw mates or better warn enemies away. When I lived in Australia frogs used to LOVE to get into our HUGE rainwater tank that collected water off the roof (right next to the farmhouse) and their croak became BOOMING inside the tank. It would keep us awake all night unless we went out and took the frog out of the tank and put him back in the creek 1/4 miles away. We tried sealing it but they still got in…and the same one would came right back within a hour or two after we put him the creek. They loved it because it increased the volume of their call.
I just hugged you when you said the cooing was right by your elbow when you typed. Aaaah, isn’t that SOOOOOO delightful? Aren’t those the things that make life simply PRECIOUS?!! I love how you are so aware of the world around you; that is a gift you give the world. It is NOT something everyone expresses…or even sees. Very well done “Beautiful Bird”.