{"id":22626,"date":"2026-08-05T21:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22626"},"modified":"2026-08-12T15:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:15:05","slug":"ghost-of-a-pigeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22626","title":{"rendered":"Ghost of a Pigeon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-22637\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghostF7DL6160.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghostF7DL6160.jpg 600w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghostF7DL6160-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/>An unlucky bird must have flown full tilt into our window today. There was no corpse on the ground below so it must have flapped away with an aching head leaving a print of itself on the rain-soaked glass and a feather where its beak should be. Here&#8217;s a brief video:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 600px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-22626-1\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" loop=\"1\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghost600.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghost600.mp4\">https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ghost600.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Later: a pile of feathers at the bottom of the garden provides a clue. Most likely the pigeon rammed the window when fleeing in terror from a <a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22136\">sparrowhawk<\/a> but the bird of prey caught up with it and now it is probably a ghost indeed. How sad.<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/feathersF7DL6166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/feathersF7DL6166.jpg 600w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/feathersF7DL6166-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/>A1 is reading <em>The Burning Tide<\/em> by William Shaw. A2 is reading <em>The Pinnacle<\/em> by Abir Mukherjee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unlucky bird must have flown full tilt into our window today. There was no corpse on the ground below so it must have flapped away with an aching head leaving a print of itself on the rain-soaked glass and a feather where its beak should be. Here&#8217;s a brief video: Later: a pile of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22626\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ghost of a Pigeon&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,14],"tags":[19,20,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22626"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22645,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626\/revisions\/22645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}