Starbird

Meet our new friend. Pidg (aka Starbird) is a racing pigeon we found looking rather sorry for himself near the boat at Bugsworth.
Now don't go confusing racing pigeons with those ugly old wood pigeons. Starbird was a handsome fella: slim and elegant with beautiful grey/blue plumage and delicate brown bars on his wings. He also had a ring on his leg and we spent ages tempting him closer with morsels of bread so we could read the number and help him home.
The Royal Racing Pigeon Society website said "give him food and drink and he'll usually find his own way home." Which he did, consuming two slices of Tesco Finest bread and flying off in the evening, never to be seen again.
Until the next afternon when there on the deck was Starbird looking for food again. Now the previous day he did look thin but today he already looked pretty plump -- but still managed to force down a slice of bread, pushing it down into his crop with huge, gulping swallows like a fat man gulping a supersized Big Mac.
Nor did he show any inclination to go - hopping down into the boat to take a good look around, at the bed, the galley and even the engine before finally flying off.
So was Pidg really a waif or was he a local bird who'd discovered that fluttering down to the Basin for a feed from the boaters was a whole lot easier than battling back to his coop from some distant destination? Or maybe he'll even decide to follow us!