The Passenger Pigeon

There’s an American bird – the Passenger Pigeon – that is thought to be extinct. It turns out this isn’t true. It’s come to London. Let me explain.

We’ve had a bit of a horrid day. After our wonderful Christmas with the family (London Branch) we were due to travel home today. Kings Cross Station, when we arrived, was crammed with travellers staring at the Departures board, unable to begin their journey. We joined them. Five minutes before our train’s scheduled departure, it was cancelled. Not that we had been able to fight our way through the throng to get on it. And so it went on. Finally, we abandoned all hope. We turned round to beg another night from the London Branch.

And that’s where the Passenger Pigeon comes in. As we got onto our local train, we spotted a bird – a pigeon – in the luggage rack, intent on joining us for the journey.

He must have realised he didn’t have a ticket. Just before the doors closed, he pulled himself energetically together … and flew off.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

31 thoughts on “The Passenger Pigeon”

  3. Was the delay/cancellation due to the weather? I know that northern Germany has been severely battered by storm and flooding. We only had high winds and weather that was kind of wet and far too warm for the time of year, lucky us. I guess you’re home now so spoil yourself a little bit with me time – whatever that means to you.

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      2. Of course, and that would have been our next port of call. But the roads have been nearly as bad. Anyway, now on a nearly empty train bowling northwards. If all goes well, we could be home and dry well before 10.00 a.m. Hope you get home without stress!

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  8. Urgh. Travel chaos is the pits (and one reason why I always stay home at Christmas). Pigeons are notorious for travelling on tube trains; the Hammersmith & City line always had them wandering on and off as they pleased 😀

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  10. Not what you needed after a lovely Christmas. It was kind of the pigeon to entertain you though. And good to hear your early start has paid dividends today.

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      1. Ours was lovely too. We travelled home on Boxing Day – on the road by 7 and dodged all the traffic. A repeat exercise is planned for New Year… Hope we’ll be lucky again on this next trip …. 🤔

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  11. I missed this yesterday and only realised that I had when I saw today’s post. Sorry to hear you were delayed but the pigeon makes for a fun story. Actually I met a passenger pigeon myself a few years ago – he boarded the Piccadilly line train I was on at Hammersmith and alighted at the next stop, Acton Town 🙂 I found myself wondering if he was confused to find himself there!

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  12. Glad it got off – the idea of being closed up in a carriage with a possibly distressed pigeon fills me with horror. I blame Hitchcock! Hope you got home eventually!

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