Pigeon Wing

introduction

Mr. Arnold Lab Cat

On odd occasions, during my journey home I have previously chanced upon a bit of avian road kill lying in state. While the bird’s fate is unfortunate I find it important to ensure it did not die in vain. I have often toyed with the idea of picking it up and taking it home, but always bottled it at the last minute - it's a bit gross.

Following a protracted Rat incident involving Mr. Arnie the other Sunday my faithful Lab Cat returned home after one of his evening expeditions with a poignant piece of anatomy hanging out of his gob. By retrieving the wing of a pigeon he had inadvertently answered my prayers. I quickly rescued the remaining carcass from his jaws, thanked him profusely (I must point out it wasn't Arnie who made the kill, the carcass was a good couple of days into decomposition), donned my latex gloves (very important) and set about the bird biopsy.

At this point my research had left me a little short of understanding. I had ample photo's and video's but they can only tell you so much; you can observe these creatures in the wild but they move so quick and travel so much distance you have to be David Attenborough with a high speed camera to capture any meaningful footage - that I am not!

So I still had a few blanks to fill and after 15mins playing with the wings mechanisms, I had learnt far more about the folding process than all my previous endeavours.

For ease of reference, I think it would be best to break my findings down into separate posts. I will try and relate my images to illustrate the incorrect assumptions I have previousley made.

wing extension

fig. 01	fig. 02	fig. 03	fig. 04
fig. 05	fig. 06

feather

wing fold

fig. 01	fig. 02	fig. 03	fig. 04
fig. 05	fig. 06	fig. 07	fig. 08
fig. 09