I was standing in the garden one day last week when I saw a feather falling to the ground.
It fell slowly as you would expect – it floated to the ground in next door’s garden.
It took around four seconds to cover the distance from the the height of the top of a nearby tree to the ground.
It wasn’t a tiny feather and it wasn’t a big feather. It was, perhaps, a pigeon’s secondary feather.
I looked up when I saw the feather and I couldn’t see a single bird in the sky.
Whose feather was it?
I don’t know.
There has been a good response (over 700 of you have taken part) to Monday’s four questions on extinction so I’ll close the poll this evening and give you the answers tomorrow.
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Thank you for that, Mark “Forrest” Avery!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKlRZ2Q855Q
Doug – I’ve never seen that, I had to look it up. But yes – a very similar feather actually!
Probably a woodpigeon, they are still losing feathers round our garden at the moment, aided by the fact that they are still copulating at every opportunity.
Ian – what a racy neighbourhood you have!
It’s the heady northern air, Mark. Fortunately, it is also favourable for house sparrows although all our summer migrants including swallows have left.
Have you heard the one about the Cardinal who appeared at the Pope’s balcony in St Peter’s and said – “The Pope is dying of a heart problem. God has decided that one of his faithful will be the donor of a new heart. I have here a little feather, I will drop it and on whomsoever it lands, God will have chosen as the donor.” He dropped the feather, closed his eyes for prayer and when he opened them he saw thousands of people below all staring intently at the window and blowing upwards as hard as they could.
Boom, boom!
Mark, you’ve gone all hippy on us. You ok man?
Bob – hey man! How ya doin? Far out!
Tell me Mark, do you spend much time peering into your neighbours garden ?
Gideon – was that meant to be neighbour’s or neighbours’?
“Whose feather was it?”
As it landed in your neighbour’s garden, it’s theirs. Don’t get into a legal wrangle over it, though but, you know how these things escalate …
filbert – sound advice. What if I had caught it before it hit the ground – would it still be theirs? And if so, at what point in its fall did it stop being the pigeon’s and start being theirs? I’m just interested – they are welcome to the feather!
Falling is painless – hitting the ground is what hurts. I’m glad it didn’t land on your fence, on its centre of garvity, otherwise we could be here for a long time …
Once it crosses the centre line of the boundary it belongs to whichever property is on that side of the centre. For example, if a tree has a branch which is growing over someone elses property, the owner of that adjoining property has the right to cut the branch at the boundary of the two properties. However, this does not give the owner of the adjacent property the legal ownership of the cut off portion of branch. This piece of branch must be offered back to the owner of the tree the branch was cut from. Following on from this, the property owner that the feather landed in should offer the feather back to the bird if the bird was not on his property when the feather was ejected? I hope this is clear.
Mark it could be one of three things
1) You were having pigeon and mash for dinner
2) A message/sign from Martha
3) A subtle hint from your publisher to get back to your computer and hurry up with the book…