Dead Dove/Pigeon

I call the birds that appear half dove/half pigeon 'dove/pigeons'. Not long after posting yesterday's blog I noticed a hunched up dove/pigeon on a low part of my roof. It was obviously ill so I thought I'd be able to reach it and put it in isolation. By the time I'd got the net and the steps it had moved way out of reach.

By 8pm it had gone, and checking the undergrowth in the flower bed below I found it's poor dead body. It was a beautiful bird - white but shadowed all over with grey. I retrieved Shadow and sent him to a watery grave in the river. Now, thinking about it, maybe I should have kept him as I hope to see a vet today and discuss the whole paramyxo thing - but Hub3 recommended I dispose of him in the river and I just didn't think.

Of course he may not have had the virus, he may have died or something else or old age - but I doubt it.

I feel we have got the plague. As I type the sun is shining on the dovecote making it brilliantly white - and John or Lily is peeping out. Lord of Nature - please look after my doves.

Later:

I went up to a new vets that is very local to where I live - only five mins in the car. It's in an old barn, but sympathetically modern inside, and the staff were very friendly. I was able to have an informal chat with the vet, immediately - no waiting, wow! Not like that at my old vets. He also gives his time at the Wildlife Aid centre mentioned before and basically said the same as the vet I saw up there - nowt much one can do about it. Paramyxo is always with us.

Nothing to do with doves, but I also spoke to him about my Yorkshire Terrier's teeth, and I will make an appointment to take him up there so that I get a second opinion on whether a cleaning op will be necessary, and how it will affect him (he has a collapsed trachea).

The photo is an old one, showing some of the doves swinging on the telegraph wire.