Pigeon attacks Purple Line!
Among the bored passengers boarding the Purple Line at Belmont Tuesday afternoon was a pigeon.
It waddled (not flew) aboard like a seasoned commuter. Before you knew it, the doors closed tightly and and we were in a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds."
Except it was the bird who was scared shitless.
All the passengers were just giggling, "Ohh, it's a pigeon, hee hee!"
Meanwhile that bird did not like the break-neck speed the motorman drove from Wilson to Howard. Not one bit. Surprisingly, the pigeon only actually took flight once, and only very briefly and for a short distance.
By the time we reached Howard, birdie was obviously distressed and we gave him wide berth to be the first to exit the car.
I guess he wasn't going on to Davis.
Poor little pidgie. He must have been terrified... Good thing he didn't fly around!
Posted by: Margaret | September 15, 2004 at 08:28 AM
I had a similar avian encounter last week, sitting on a train at Howard waiting to head downtown. (I'm sure the pigeon was just trying to avoid the terrible squawking of the recorded predator bird noise that endlessly plays at the Howard station.) Luckily I had time to chase him back out the door before we took off, but I had to follow him around the car a bit, walking in circles as I tried to herd him toward the door. When I finally did, I looked up to see five passengers smiling at me and my strange performance.
Posted by: Kathryn | September 15, 2004 at 10:44 PM
KATHRYN!! I could hug you....you've confirmed my suspicions!!!
The Screaming Birds of Howard Station have been one of my odder personal mysteries for about three years now. At first I just assumed there was a really loud-ass pigeon trapped in a chimney flue or something, and that's why it was squawking up a storm. Then I thought it had to be a whole nest of pigeons--or vultures. Possibly vultures in a blender, boiling in oil while their toenails were being pulled out.
A few weeks ago, as I was standing on the Purple platform, I had a thought. And I walked up to a CTA employee (perched on the salt-box, doing nothing) and I asked her:
"Are there ACTUAL BIRDS making that godawful sound, or is that a RECORDING ?"
She looked at me (as one would normally look at a total stranger asking a bizzaro question) and finally said "No, those are real birds."
And I accepted it--I figured, who would know better than a CTA employee? (Okay, yeah, don't even say it--silly, silly Gladys.)
Now at least I can stand on that platform without thinking "those poor birdies"!
Posted by: gladys | September 16, 2004 at 08:56 AM
the birds are so loud at Howard St, more like Howeird St.
Posted by: Zol87 | May 25, 2007 at 08:13 PM