Don't Feed The Birds

Long day. Just got back in at 10pm so a quick blip of the pigeons that were being fed in Leeds City Square at lunch time.

Bit of info: The Rock Dove (Columba livia) or Rock Pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae (doves and pigeons). It is often simply referred to as the "pigeon". The species includes the domestic pigeon (including the fancy pigeon), and escaped domestic pigeons have given rise to feral populations around the world.

Pigeons have been used for centuries in racing contests and to carry messages. In 43 B.C., Brutus used homing pigeons to communicate with his consuls during a siege by Mark Antony. In World War II, a homing pigeon named GI Joe, was credited with saving thousands of lives racing 20 miles in 20 minutes to deliver a message calling off bombing raids of a town captured just hours before by allied troops. Not only are these birds fast, they don't wither when under enemy attack either. On Guadalcanal, Blackie Holligan was released into a barrage of enemy fire. He showed up long overdo, bloody from shrapnel, but still holding on to his message.(See the National Geographic, April 1947 article entitled "The Flying Telegraph" for interesting stories about homing pigeons.)
Extract from Snowdoves.com which has lots of other interesting info on pigeons.

Imagine all of us having our own pigeons flying our messages around instead of text!!! OK, it's late. I'm off to sleep and will catch up on journals tomorrow :)