A Bird On Each Leg...

I've had a fondness for pigeon stories ever since I saw a home-made sign saying: "LOST: one pigeon. Grey and scrawny. Answers to the name 'pigeon'." outside EssentialTravel.co.uk's office in Carnaby Street, but this one is even better.

On Sunday, Australian customs officers discovered a man with two pigeons stashed down his tights, pigeon eggs hidden in a pill box, AND an undeclared aubergine (Australia's quarantine laws are extremely strict). Despite the ten-hour flight (Dubai-Melbourne) the pigeons are fine, but their carrier now faces up to ten years in prison.

Carrier pigeons are sometimes used for drug smuggling (one was arrested for heroin-related offences in Bosnia only last year - honestly) but actually smuggling pigeons yourself is a new one. Nobody knows - yet - why he did it. Or why he was wearing tights. Or why he needed the aubergine. But we do know that airport security at Dubai is completely rubbish.

And on the subject of pigeons, here follows a completely unrelated but strangely endearing video on racing pigeons in County Durham: