tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post3497884826594350758..comments2024-03-18T09:44:41.095+00:00Comments on ShukerNature: POSTHUMOUS SIGHTINGS OF PASSENGER PIGEONS?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15628598508836601012noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-57375950926583877492023-07-07T21:51:01.628+01:002023-07-07T21:51:01.628+01:00Hi. I have always loved reading about the passenge...Hi. I have always loved reading about the passenger pigeon. Good article. I am not crazy. I truly believe that I saw a flock of about 10 passenger pigeons flying overhead along the Allegheny River in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania back in the 1980's. I wrote a letter to Cornell University but nobody responded. Also, I was homeless and living in the woods behind the Walmart in Pineville, Missouri. I truly believe that there was a male passenger pigeon living near the lake back there. It is a small town near a state forest. Also, I am currently homeless and living in the woods along Willow Creek outside of Tyler, Texas. I have been in the area for the last 4 years. I truly believe that a male passenger pigeon lives along this Willow Creek. I am listening to him calling now. A haunting and melodious Tret Tret Tret Tret Tret. Sad he keeps calling never to find a female. I have not seen any other birds of his kind around here. I truly believe that the passenger pigeon does still exist in the wild. I don't understand why, but not too many people seem to care if it is still here. To contact me my email address is tdelehanty97@gmail.com. I hope someday the passenger pigeon returns to numbers enough to be widely visible like the many Cardinals that fly through these woods. There is something special about the passenger pigeon.Tammynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-78243688480115903532023-06-18T20:50:27.364+01:002023-06-18T20:50:27.364+01:00I feel the same. Seems like it would be almost imp...I feel the same. Seems like it would be almost impossible to say that absolutely no more of a species exists. I have always believed that the passenger pigeon survives in small numbers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-36591890109614399762022-08-16T07:20:26.302+01:002022-08-16T07:20:26.302+01:00Many years ago, my great grandmother told me a sto...Many years ago, my great grandmother told me a story that during the 1930s she was working in a cherry orchard and discovered a recently shot bird at the base of one of the trees. She picked it up and examined it and described it as dove-like and of a slate blue-gray color with a reddish breast. She firmly believed that it was a male Passenger Pigeon that had been feeding on cherries in the orchard, adding that she had seen other similar birds in the same orchard. My great grandmother was a great outdoorswoman, the daughter of a federal game warden, an avid observer of wild birds and bred Domestic Pigeons, poultry, game birds and just about anything else with feathers. Though I do not recall the location of the orchard she spoke of, my great grandmother was born in the traditional range of the Passenger Pigeon and I suspect the orchard was probably either in eastern Wyoming or Nebraska. As a pigeon breeder for over 45 years, the Passenger Pigeon has always intrigued me. From a personal point of view, I find a total extinction of the species difficult to fathom and hard to accept. Though it is usually accepted that the species required a large colony structure to get by in the world, many early accounts also clearly describe much smaller breeding groups in addition to the immense breeding colonies usually described. My personal belief, based on pigeon and dove behavior, as well as numerous sightings and other incidents, is that the species is "still out there", but that its numbers are small and they remain illusive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-33787855612357196272020-04-15T00:58:52.842+01:002020-04-15T00:58:52.842+01:00I spotted a pigeon today about an hour ago or so, ...I spotted a pigeon today about an hour ago or so, and it was identical to a passenger pigeon. It was a fat pigeon and a pointed tail with white tops, brown bird with what looked like bluishness on its sides. I caught videographic evidence of this bird, when I saw it closer I didnt get to record that part but it looked a lot more like a passenger pigeon. The video is not too too good but I think it might have enough detail to convince some people. No one else in my family cares I'm the only one. I'll post the video if I can figure out how toAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12570579042920631250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-2850240839721035532019-12-12T02:41:50.212+00:002019-12-12T02:41:50.212+00:00In 2010 in Elysian Park, l saw a flock of about 5 ...In 2010 in Elysian Park, l saw a flock of about 5 birds that flew like pigeons but flew into a tree! Their movements were pigeons but their color were not. I know because l raised pigeons. Never seen a flock of pigeons living in park trees. Los Angeles.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15840791855813246467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-88346320119115270812018-10-09T16:32:20.384+01:002018-10-09T16:32:20.384+01:00Excellent article. Thanks for sharing. It is fasci...Excellent article. Thanks for sharing. It is fascinating to wonder if the passenger pigeon may have survived in some isolated regions for some years. I guess we'll never know for sure.Picks by Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03210946161490466694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-28488176269589267472017-05-10T16:45:40.563+01:002017-05-10T16:45:40.563+01:00Honestly I do believe that the Passenger Pigeon mi...Honestly I do believe that the Passenger Pigeon might be alive in somewhere, I live on Brazil and we've had the great surprise of discovery after 75 years old of a specie of dove the Blue Eyed Ground Dove, so USA is so big why not too. I hope so !!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613536579172903501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-40214823547205361802017-03-15T03:52:45.229+00:002017-03-15T03:52:45.229+00:00Another interesting article. Reminded me of a very...Another interesting article. Reminded me of a very good short story I read not too long ago - "A Flock Of Birds" by James Van Pelt (I read it in the 20th edition of Gardner Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction.) Well worth the time to find.Harpohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04367415017738390825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-64856869231469468792017-03-11T13:22:04.451+00:002017-03-11T13:22:04.451+00:00Thank you, I'm glad that it was of interest to...Thank you, I'm glad that it was of interest to you.<br />Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-62576144892724058922017-03-11T13:21:25.076+00:002017-03-11T13:21:25.076+00:00Yes, I've read about the notion of the passeng...Yes, I've read about the notion of the passenger pigeon being an unstable species, which seems quite tenable, and when impacted upon by wholesale destruction by humans this would have actively worked against its longterm survival. The sightings and claims of passenger pigeons as big as ravens or hawks is new to me - I've never seen any such reports myself - but I agree that the real passenger pigeon was certainly not as big as this.<br />Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-18749270356306158292017-03-11T13:16:30.374+00:002017-03-11T13:16:30.374+00:00Both, sadly - for sport, to see how many could be ...Both, sadly - for sport, to see how many could be shot, and because they were tasty.Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-73113059749186967302017-03-10T02:43:01.462+00:002017-03-10T02:43:01.462+00:00So why exactly were they hunted to extinction: &qu...So why exactly were they hunted to extinction: "fun"; edible?Olrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14519546544726111480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-12148855998672216752017-03-08T21:57:51.024+00:002017-03-08T21:57:51.024+00:00While I have seen a lot of claims that the passeng...While I have seen a lot of claims that the passenger pigeon would only reproduce in large flocks and thus after its population had dropped below a certain 'critical mass' its extinction was guaranteed, I have also seen the claim that the huge flocks of passenger pigeons in the 19th century were themselves not 'normal' for the species, but the result of an unstable population boom that was itself caused by the effects of European settlers on the North American ecosystem (I think in particular the mass extermination of the American bison, and also possibly the loss of Native American traditional agriculture). I'm not sure whether or not these claims are compatible with each other, but a single species making up 45% of the entire bird population of a continent, and forming such enormous flocks that they must have represented mass movements of significant percentages of the population of even that ultra-numerous species, does seem like a somewhat 'unbalanced' or unsustainable situation.<br /><br />Another odd thing that I remember from cryptozoology forums that were online 15 or so years ago was people claiming sightings of 'passenger pigeons' that they described as "a pigeon the size of a raven" or "a pigeon the size of a Red-tailed Hawk". I don't know what those were, but I'm sure they couldn't have been passenger pigeons, as the real passenger pigeon was only about the same size (though longer-tailed) as an ordinary domestic pigeon. (I wonder if these 'sightings' were influenced by a belief that every extinct species must somehow be bigger and 'more impressive' than its living counterparts?)stevethehydrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18334234855643025449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-65414526259337502982017-03-08T04:21:38.743+00:002017-03-08T04:21:38.743+00:00Wonderful. I had no idea about these sightings. I ...Wonderful. I had no idea about these sightings. I sure do hope that there are some of them left and that their numbers will grow.<br />Thank you for this info.Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00873544706019347527noreply@blogger.com