It has warmed up considerably which means the children are rushing back outdoors after dinner to catch the last rays of sunshine before the light is gone for the day. On one of those evenings this week they came back in breathless and told me to look out the window. There on the deck was a beautiful bird not normally seen up here. In fact we mostly see birds of prey and mappies and the occasional blue bird (literally a blue bird that isn't a bluebird. I am a flunky Charlotte Mason homeschooler). Although I am lame at identifying birds on sight I am awesome at grabbing my camera to snap the nameless creatures and send their pictures to Macbeth. And I did.
The bird wasn't the least bit afraid of us, also not aggressive, and spent several minutes resting there amidst kids and dogs. It appeared to be well so we left it alone. It was not until some days later when I was editing the images that I noticed the leg band. That set off our research and the note to Macbeth who suggested perhaps it was a homing pigeon. Eventually found this site explaining how to read a leg band, which birds get banded and where they may be from. We discovered this bird is registered with the AU = AMERICAN RACING PIGEON UNION ORGANIZATION. Searching their site we learned our bird was likely from Pennsylvania. We are still trying to figure out if this is possible.
We read that lost or tired birds usually are looking for water. I wish we had known this earlier. This page explains what you can do if a bird that's lost his way crosses your path. Pigeon trivia here.
Books we have ordered:
Gay-Neck The Story of a Pigeon
Along with whatever non-fiction we can drum up.
Starry Sky Journal 