Adopted pets of mine – The Pigeons! – An experimental story!

It’s been a scuffle between me and the pigeons since I gave them a chance to build their nests on one of the flower pots in my balcony. They made my life miserable after that act and so now I’m facing the repercussions of cleaning all the pots and the French windows to clean their faeces. Sometimes it’s really good to give some needy a home but it’s very difficult to keep it organised and clean. I wonder if they had the same brain as humans did. Do they have a society amongst themselves was what came into my mind.

Let’s swing back to the 5th century BC. We know that pigeons were used as messengers or carriers when there were no emails, text messages, and posts. I was amazed how pigeons were used as messengers – how would they remember streets, where the messages should be delivered to and how will they get back from hundreds of miles. I watched this video on YouTube where I understood that pigeons used the same trajectory or path when they had attempted 5 – 10 flights from a certain source to a destination. But how do they do it was still a debatable question which remains unanswered.

Some say that it’s because of the presence of the sun, the magnetic fields which they keep track of and reach to a particular place. Some also say that it’s the fragrance of the environment they live in which they smell when they are far away from their home, they keep in mind landscapes, landmarks. It’s similar to the sniff of the dogs but they are powerful than that. Just to concur to this concept I had an idea in my mind. I just wanted to check whether the pigeons can remember human faces or not. Do they remember them in any other way as they remember their homes?

I had allowed the pigeons to build their nests, they gave birth to two loved ones and they flew away. So I cleaned their nests and cleared all my flower pots. But after a few weeks, they were resistant to move away from the nests. They tried building new nests but I didn’t allow them. I did some heinous and gruesome acts like throwing away all the dried stems, twigs and leaves just to keep my flower pots clean. They used to give me this fierce look as if they wear planning to take me down. “Little birds, how can they possibly harm me?” was my thought. Never ever thought that birds have keen eyesight on all of the things they look.

The black pupils surrounded by orange iris, their pink feet with the grey clawed toes and their greenish violet shades of vibrant colours on the neck area – they look wonderful! But they do remember all the things they see. One fine day I had kept my bike uncovered and after two days there were shits of pigeon all over my bike. I got exasperated and I used to throw away all the twigs which they used to build. And this story happened for a couple of times and the pigeons used to play their part of making my bike untidy.

To get rid of this when I allowed pigeons for building their nests again, this time I tried to keep my bike uncovered, and surprisingly what happened was my bike – it wasn’t made slovenly by the pigeons. It happened thrice and then I realised that birds do have a sense of thought on what they see and they manipulate in groups and societies, communicate with each other as we live in a society with a set of standards and rules they too have a department and they work altogether dependent on each other. They report their problems to different pigeons. There used to be two pigeons outside my house, who used to keep a track of all my movements and two outside my bedroom, two outside my hallway trying to keep a watch on all my activities. It was similar to the FBI or the CSI keeping a track of all the criminals – me being the one who broke their nests needed to be punished and that was discernible by the stains of pigeon ejesta.

Pigeons had been my adopted pets who always accompany me whenever I need them. Their gawking looks, their fights which entertained me, the caring nature towards their loved ones – they teach me sometimes the most basic things to love people rather than loving the materialistic life. Pigeons you have been the most amazing pets which I’ve had, wanting to have pets with me not pigeons – but you’ve showed a glimpse of how difficult it is going to be to keep pets as you have to show a lot of care and patience so that they can be a part of family.