Friday, November 16, 2012

Flying for Victory


WW1 Gallery.  Animals at war.
I meant to use this last Sunday.
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14 comments:

Unknown said...

It is estimated that carrier pigeons/homing pigeons, used to deliver messages in WWI had a ninety five per cent success rate. The use of 'Pigeon Post' in war time has a very long history dating back to the days of ancient Greece.

Granny Annie said...

It is my long time desire to have homing pigeons. There are groups in Oklahoma and one of these days I'm going for it.

Unknown said...

They are more reliable than our current system!

Pat said...

Mike and Ann: thank you for that.
WW1 Gallery - Animals at War have some fascinating photographs.

Pat said...

Granny Annie: My dear late brother's son once had them and it went down in the annals of family history when he took them - along with family members - to a high point near his home and they flew off in the wrong direction.

Unknown said...

My dear Patricia, I've never had homing pigeons, apart fae the ones in a few hooky pies that went missing over the Duke of Argyles estate of course, but I did once own a llama that broke wind and made the exact same sound as a flock of pigeons taking off.

You'll be telling your pals about that over lunch tomorrow I'm sure. I just wonder how you will broach the original topic of conversation.

angryparsnip said...

Lovely post today.
The story of your nephew was so funny. What a great family story.

cheers, parsnip

OldLady Of The Hills said...

All the different Animals that contributed to the Great War and WW2 sometimes go un-noticed....Especially the Dogs and Horses and Homing Pidgeons.

The story about your Nephews Birds is pretty funny, my dear Pat....One hopes there were better directed ones actually flying during the Wars....!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Mike and Ann have answered my question.

Ha ha! As Chef Files says. I've heard that pigeon meat is delicious [I'll never know, I don't eat meat].

Vagabonde said...

At least they were pigeons that did good work. In Venice last month I saw so many pigeons – they are a problem really for the old palaces – they should use those pigeons at the post office, well no - people email now – then find good and easy recipes to cook them….

Pat said...

John: I wonder if they are used at all now for messages. It would be a way to keep one's correspondence secret - which seems impossible these days.

Chef: you describe it so vividly it's as if I'm there - with all the senses alerted. No lunch parrties today. I'll just have to try it out on MTL. I'll swear sometimes he's not listening properly.

Parsnip: Peter was aways a source of laughter with his antics.

Naomi: I still haven't seem War Horse - or read the book.

GG: Pigeon pie would be akin to eating rat pie. Not for me!

Vagabonde: People will feed them - which exacerbates the problem - like sea gulls here.
We have two which use our arbour in the garden. Late afternoon they perch and ignore each other for fifteen minutes or so and then one jumps on the other for a brief moment and then they fly off in differet directions.

Gadjo Dilo said...

Our cats are currently at war with an all-black neighbourhood tom - I wonder if they could be trained up for overseas duties.

Pat said...

Gadjo: from what I hear from my cat owner friends cat march to a different drum.

LL Cool Joe said...

I'm always amazed by the way animals are used in war. I remember seeing photos of dogs being used after 9/11 happened and they were were incredible, just so brave, and trained so well to be focused on doing the job they were meant to do.