Pigeon Man : Part 2

Not for the faint hearted - here as promised is part 2 of the Pigeon Man.

Pigeon Man

As promised many months ago, here is the footage of the pigeon hunter in action.

Be warned that while this may be an edited down version, it is still just a video of a man standing for a long, long time in a park, in the rain, trying to catch a pigeon. Its strangely hypnotic though.

[For those wondering what this is all about click here for the earlier story]

Baked the Pigeon?

His favourite bit is the pigeons in the title sequence of coronation street.

And so the pigeon story rolls on.

I had thought contacting the Police would have done the trick and that a visit from the boys in blue would make Pigeon Man retire.

Either he is made of sterner stuff or the Police didn't follow it up because at the weekend our friend Alan informed us that early on Saturday morning he too had seen the Pigeon Man up to his old tricks and this time he had an assistant.

I'm not too sure what the Pigeon Assistants job would be - maybe he is going to dress up as a lady pigeon with big eye lashes and lip gloss and entice the amorous male pigeons.

Thankfully this time no pigeons were hurt and Alan kept a careful watch of the Pigeon Gang and once they noticed him watching they packed up and drove away scowling at Alan the whole time.

While I'm glad they didn't manage to get any more pigeons the real thing that bothers me is the unknown answer of why he is catching them in the first place? Is it really to eat, as so many people keeping suggesting? Even the Beeb has Pigeon recipes on its menu - the idea of eating a mangy urban pigeon is disgusting.

I prefer the idea that he is training them as pets like this crazy lady. What do you all think - have a vote.

I've contacted the Park to let them know about it and they are going to keep their eyes out. A lot of people have posted saying that pigeons are vermin so catching/ killing them is allowed. The only piece of legal speak I can find on the subject however seems to say that hunting is strictly forbidden unless you have a license.

"P.5.2. The bird pest species which may be killed or taken under licence are: crow, jackdaw, magpie, rook, jay, house sparrow, starling, woodpigeon, feral pigeon, collared dove, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull and greater black-backed gull. The general licence permits these birds to be killed only for the purposes of preventing serious damage to agricultural concerns or for public health and safety. For any other purposes an individual licence must be obtained. "

So what now? I think I might stick up some wanted posters in the park with the guys picture to see if we can track him down, though this might scare him into moving hunting ground, so keep your eyes peeled everyone - he might move to a park near you.

Ate the pigeon?

So still no news from the Police - you don't suppose they never followed it up? Surely a crack squad of commandos should be investigating this right now? I guess we'll never find out what he was up to but I shall keep an eye out just in case he returns. Below are a list of our favourites of your suggestions for what the pigonnappers motives were. What do you think?

Image by David Shrigley

Caught the Pigeon

Oh no - you will never believe me - but he came back.

In what is fast becoming the most popular story to ever feature on Southside Happenings (how sad is that?) the pigeon man returned.

Again I was just quietly getting on with some work when I glanced out the window and there he was, dressed far more appropriately and this time with a newly design trap. It was like watching a live action version of Wile E Coyote trying to catch the road runner.

The modified trap consisted of the tried and tested stick, an old shopping basket instead of a plastic box and . . . . a piece of string. I suddenly feel guilty - maybe he reads Southside Happenings and we tipped him off or else he was up all last night redesigning it.

Humorously the bit of string wasn't very long meaning the hunter had to kneel down right beside the basket - with the result that none of the pigeons should any interest in the mountain of bread that he had laid as bait.

Our humour was short lived - as showing far more patience than yesterday the hunter stayed still long enough to entice the pigeons to enter his lair. He waited, and waited and waited then . . . pounce he made his move - two pigeons in the basket.

Suddenly the humour of the situation vanished and the gravitas of the unknown fate of the pigeons raised its head. As the hunter scrabbled underneath basket one of the pigeons made a break for it - sadly the other wasn't so lucky and was soon in what appeared to be quite expert hands.

Within seconds he had the pigeon huddled against him, his trap packed up and he was heading for the car - not even shouts from the nearby bus stop did anything to stop him.

We were perplexed - "eh maybe we should have called the police instead of just sitting back and filming him."

After some debate we did call the police which started with me having to say "Hi yes, eh bit of a strange one, I'd like to report the kidnapping of a pigeon."

We have handed over his registration plate and we await the police report into what happens - watch this space.

If I have to go to a police interview about a pigeon-napping I will not be pleased.

Stop the Pigeon

OK this is one of the oddest posts I've had the pleasure of writing.

Yesterday I was just sitting quietly getting on with work when I looked across and what should I see in the park but a man trying to catch a pigeon in a homemade trap. Armed with a plastic box, a stick and a box of bread crumbs he spent 45 long minutes unsuccessfully trying to entice them to enter his trap.

His technique was seriously flawed though, as he had forgotten a key component of the trap - a bit of string tied to the stick. He got plenty of pigeons going into the box but none of them knocked the stick causing the box to fall. All that happened was the pigeons happily tucked into the free breadcrumbs under a little shelter while our hunter stood about at the edges looking increasingly glum while the rain poured down upon his head. (We managed to capture the whole thing on film and might upload it here someday - it is quite fascinating.)

Why he was trying to catch pigeons - we have no idea. Maybe the credit crunch is hitting people even harder than I thought? Eventually, he just gave up, despite the pigeons showing more interest than ever before and he stormed over grabbed up his box and walked off.

Not sure why this makes it seem even weirder but he walked over and put all the equipment in the boot of a car and then drove off. That meant he had specifically driven there to carry out this odd behaviour.

At one point he did leave the trap completely and go around other areas of the park picking up other peoples bread, I guess in an attempt to make his trap more alluring. He also went to the shop to buy some juice. I was very tempted to run over the road and put a plastic pigeon that I happen to own inside the box to film his reaction but we chickened out.

If anyone has any clues as to what was going on then please let us know.