Two birds one river and a lineage to dinosaurs

Photos: Edward

Two pigeons have been picked up lately. Firstly, a down at heels pigeon was found motionless on a boat yard gantry after bashing his head. Carol kindly came and collected the boxed bird for rehabilitation.

The second pigeon was waddling along the edge of the river walk with legs recently bound with twine and trailing grass. This was quickly cut off with a pair of scissors.

It's really quite fascinating and surreal to look at the feet of humble looking pigeons. Their pronged 'digits' covered in tiny red scaled flesh and rasping claws have a lineage humans can only dream about ~ right back to the age of dinosaurs 75 million years ago. In comparison, humans have existed for only the last 315,000 years or so.

Chris