Dead Bird Update

So it's been nearly a month since the wood pigeon met its grizzly end on our lawn. And it's been sitting in a bucket of bio washing powder solution ever since, while I try to acquire a decent isopod colony (thank you to Leigh Van Valen for sending me his paper on the subject). As of last week I still only had two or three woodlice, because the little buggers seem to be hiding from me. They don't mind going mental when I need to repot something, but it's as though they know I'm after them this time.

But, as anyone who watches CSI regularly will know, sooner or later a body in a bucket is pretty much only able to be transported in a bucket. So to avoid it liquifying, I wanted to get it a bit drier, and a bit less meaty.


Here was my kit. A job lot of rubber gloves, some old newspapers (this may be the most useful thing the Hounslow Guardian has ever done...), my trusty dissection kit, and a large jar of Vicks Vapo-Rub. I've heard that the latter is used in forensic circles when the smell of decomposition might be overpowering, to basically bombard the nostrils with something as pungent but less revolting.

It doesn't really work. Month-old decomposing bird is disgusting. Really gross. Fortunately the smell seems to have dissipated and the police haven't sent round the cadavre dogs. And dissecting outside poses its own set of hazards of the sort not usually seen in the lab. For one thing, you share your dissection with every fly, wasp, bug and beetle that gets wind of the decomp. And heaven help you if the wind suddenly changes and you're downwind of the stinky corpse.


This was everything before I started good and proper on it. The body is on the left, and the head is towards the right. I'm afraid, without a willing lab assistant, it wasn't really feasible to take lots of photos during the dissection (plus I also made a bit of a pig's ear of it, so I don't really want to share the details...).

But things I noted:

• There is one helluva lot of flight muscle in the breast of a pigeon. Once you get through that, there's hardly anything left of them.
  
• It's really difficult to sex a pigeon. In fact, Dave Hone and I were talking about this. I am sure I remember reading that pigeons can change sex, in that an ovary can become a testis, and/or vice versa. Paul says that sounds familiar too. But neither Dave nor I could find anything on the internet (and I recommend putting SafeSearch on if you google "hermaphroditic bird"...). Does anyone know the truth behind this?
  
• The hyoid is blooming delicate. I think I managed to shatter it in between locating it and cutting off the scalp.
  
• The ribs are blooming delicate too. Although in my defence, the ribs were crushed before I got to it, courtesy of Tiddles.
  
• The tongue is soooo cuuuute! Such a tiny little thing in the birds, and doesn't appear to be as flexible as human tongues.
  
• This particular pigeon has lost a toe, but it was lost quite some time ago and the skin healed over pretty well. I want to take a closer look, but it could even have been congenital.

But other than that, I think the most interesting bits will still be the osteology.


Now that I've removed all the organs and most of the muscles, and separated the wings and legs (I'm seriously going to have problems eating buffalo wings for a couple of weeks), there's not a lot left of the old bird. So I might be allowed to use an old pan and heat it a bit. Although Paul may prefer for me to use my trusty camping stove and do it all outside...