Wild food - Our cats got to eat a kamikaze pigeon

Jandra · Post: # 73460Post **Jandra** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:18 pm

Bang!! DH and myself sat up straigt in our chairs barely in time to see a big bird drop in front of our window and a few white feathers fluttering after it.

It was the upstairs bedroom window that the poor creature smashed itsself against. I immediately went outside, but the impact had been of a magnitude that I couldn't imagine the bird surviving. It was dead all right and the upstairs window had an incredible V-shaped white-ish imprint on it. I was quite amazed; must have been the fat in the feathers which got transferred to the glass...

Anyhow, the pigeon (we call the species a turkish turtledove) was dead so what to do with it. Hating to see it go to waste I figured we might see if the cats would like it. That was a huge succes! Our 14-year old black cat got to plucking the bird so efficiently that I can't imagine this was the first time. One wonders what overweight pear-shaped elderly cats do when you're not around... Anyhow, I was pleased that two of the cats ate it. Nothing left but the breastbone and feathers.

If I could have saved it, I wouldn't have minded driving it to the bird rescue and spending hours on making sure it got the best chances, but as there was nothing we could do about its... deadness... it really didn't bother me to feed it to the cats. Is that weird? Callous? I remember a time where I would have gone and buried it, or something.

Jandra

Milims · Post: # 73462Post **Milims** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:42 pm

I wouldn't worry about it too much - dead is dead - can't do much about that!!! At least you had the sense to do something constructive with it!!
We had a similar incident the other day, driving home on a country road. We came upon a very badly injued cock pheasant on the road - so rather than let it die slowly Chris gave it a bang on the head - and then put it into a bag in the back of the car. 300 yards down the road - guess what - the same thing!! So we now have a brace of pheasants hanging ready for preparation and freezing for christmas!! Some idiot would have either let it die, slowly and in agony and be squashed or maybe even have tried to take it to the vet, only to cost themselves lots of dosh to have it fixed and then it ends up shot by a hunter!! At least this way the "accident" had a purpose!! (and we have a free dinner!!)

red · Post: # 73473Post **red** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 8:27 pm

not callous Jandra - just practical. a death not completely pointless.. and fat happy cats

Thomzo · Post: # 73479Post **Thomzo** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:30 pm

Even if you had buried it, something would have eaten it.

We had a spate of similar kamikaze birds around here a month or so ago. I had one fly into the conservatory window. There are loads of plants on the window sill so I was surprised it flew where it did. Another one went into the office window at work and a colleague had one fly into her patio doors. Each one resulted in a perfect "ghost" image of the bird.

Wierd

Zoe

pskipper · Post: # 73503Post **pskipper** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:21 am

I was woken up in the middle of the night once by a big bang against the window, when I opened the curtains there was an owl flying away in a wobbly fashion and a beautiful owl mark on the window with detail down to the feathers.
Our cats used to love it when birds flew into the patio doors, if they were inside we'd always give the bird time to recover (if it was going to) before letting the cats out.

Eigon · Post: # 73529Post **Eigon** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:43 pm

My dad was sitting in the conservatory a few years ago, with his back to the window.
Big bang! He turned round to see a stunned sparrowhawk lying on the path outside - it had obviously mistaken his fine head of hair for a rabbit and dived in for the kill!

Jandra · Post: # 73531Post **Jandra** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:01 pm

Ouch! Poor sparrowhawk. Maybe the sky is mirrorred in the glass and that's what makes the birds think that it is safe to fly there?

I'm not worried about feeding the cats the dead pigeon. I just kind of wondered aloud about my changed mindset from sentimental to pragmatic. I feed my cats dead animals all the time, just canned.

Nice to hear that others have had the ghost imprint on the glass after a bird impacted. It was new to me.

Jandra

Silver Ether · Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:47 am

We get this a lot and we got a sparrow hawk the other day it broke its neck ...

Yesterday I saw a man stop his car at the roadside in shropshire and he picked up a phesent ... he must have just hit it and put it in his boot ... it was a wonderful looking bird ... glad it wasn't going to go to waste. I have often wondered about this .. as I dont know how to deal with a bird like a phesent for eating ... Would a butcher deal with it if asked and maybe proffered jams and chutneys for payment or is it illigal...

9ball · Post: # 73643Post **9ball** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:18 am

Most Birds do tend to see the reflection in windows and hit them - although with birds like Sparrowhawks they naturally fly through tunnels as part of their hunting behaviour, so if you have a dual aspect room with both curtains open they may try to fly through. Some good advice here from the rspb. We used to have lots of window strikes when I was younger as we had a 60s house with big picture windows - but I've never had one here as we have old sash windows.