Lucy Stevens

As part of the Don’t Shoot the Messenger Project, I decided to gather further recordings of feral pigeons at the canal (Evansweir) that runs through the Rally Park in Leicester. This is the place where I was first inspired to look more closely at the wildlife that lives within the surrounding area, to learn more about their behaviour through bird watching courses, and to incorporate birdsong and calls into the creation of soundscapes.

To gather the best binaural audio recordings of feral pigeons, I had to be able to get as close to them as possible… so here is what I did.

Wearing an overall and using tape to attach bread to my arms, legs and body, I made my way down to the canal, hoping that the pigeons would feed off me.

I was all ready to go, I had my recording equipment ready, my in- ear microphones turned on, goggles on (just in case a beak came to close to my eye!) As I edged closer to walk into the centre of the group of pigeons… they flew away and then looked at me oddly as if it were a trick. So I sat down, but still they weren’t very keen, so I threw some bread around me and a few shuffled closer. Then I laid down and before I knew it was surrounded by pigeons, pecking bread off my legs and arms and jumping on top of me, cooing madly.