On my first walk by this plaza, I thought I’d have to post “ersatz rock pigeons of the world,” because there was nothing hanging around except lots and lots of gulls.
By my return trip, the normal allotment of park pigeons had come out of hiding.
It was a cold and rainy day for them, too.
And that’s this week’s camera critters.
Rather lovely, aren’t they? Pure and white, gentle and fascinating.
Proof that if you have seen one pigeon, you haven’t seen them all.
I’m told they are found nowhere in Spain other than Seville, and are descended from the original birds given by the Phillipine people to the city in honor of the 1929 expo held there.
Peace, love, pigeons!
Pigeons encountered on my recent trip to Nevada. Boulder City, Nevada, to be precise.
This is silly. Very silly. They look just like every other pigeon in the world.
Well, maybe that one on the left is a little different. Kinda cute, too.
But would they cooperate and perch on the Coffee Cup Cafe sign? Noooooooo! You’ll just have to take my word for it that these are genuine Nevada rock pigeons.
Perhaps I was frustrated by the lack of opportunities to go birding on this trip, but there came a time when I began to amuse myself by taking pictures of the pigeons in our various points of call.
I have a couple of pigeon photos posted previously after trips to New York City and Paris, and I’ve added the POTW tag to those as well.
As a kid, I always loved feeding pigeons at the zoo or in the park. As I grew up, I absorbed and internalized my parents’ annoyance with them. “Rats with wings,” they said. The birding community reinforces this attitude as well.
But an awful lot of people like them, Mr Wren among them. He reminds me of their close relationship to doves, and encourages me to feed them when we are in London or Venice or any other city where this is the tourist thing to do. So I guess I’ve returned to my roots as a child that loved all animals without prejudice, and enjoyed feeding and interacting with them all.
In that spirit, I give you the pigeons of Paris.
Update, 12/19/2010: I’ve retrospectively added this post to a new series, Pigeons of the World.
