Sunday, May 30

The Bird House




One of our favorite houses in Lawrenceville!


Many of us put out a bird feeder or a bird bath, but this house is a veritable urban wildlife sanctuary.


Although the homeowner has rescued many different kinds of birds, you will recognize her house by the humble pigeons who gather there.

There's nothing like watching them swoop off the roof of the house, circle high in the sky and sweep back.


" ... and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!"

Some birds get odes. But, like Rodney Dangerfield, pigeons usually get no respect. It's a shame,  because pigeons are gentle and determined and fast. It's worth remembering this Memorial Day weekend that pigeons have played a heroic role in military history.



Here's one anecdote from the First World War:


In October 1918 as the war neared its end, 194 American soldiers found themselves trapped by German soldiers. They were cut off from other Allied soldiers and had no working radios. The only chance they had of alerting anybody about their desperate situation was to send a [carrier] pigeon with their co-ordinates attached to its leg. The pigeon's name was Cher Ami. When released, it flew 25 miles from behind German lines to the Americans' headquarters. Cher Ami covered the 25 miles in just 25 minutes. The pigeon, in fact, had been shot through the chest by the Germans but continued to fly home. With the "Lost Battalion's" co-ordinates, the Americans launched a rescue and the 194 men were saved. Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm for its astonishing flight.

Cher Ami. A dear friend indeed.


Thank you to the homeowner for speaking with The L Vibe (even as she tried to disentangle a string from a bird's foot). The poem is by Gerard Manley Hopkins. More about the role pigeons played in World War I can be found here and about Cher Ami  here.





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