Phoenix Lofts

16/10/2023

Sadly I make a post I really didn't want to be 💔 after 16 years the pigeon who started it all has left me! To say I'm heartbroken is an understatement and it will be very surreal for a while.

White Lightning came to me when her owner was going to snap her neck, for no other reason other than he no longer wanted her, I was visiting his place with my dad and without hesitation at 14 years old myself I said I would take her. She stayed with my dad's pigeons for months until I finally had my own loft to get her and some friends. She would have been 17 in January.

Thanks girl for starting something in me. Founding Phoenix Lofts unknowingly. You gave it a good run ❤️

26/08/2023

Happy international Dog day to the two Hounds in my life ❤️💙

19/08/2023

I'd like to introduce everyone to the new member of the flock, Tia ❤️.

Tia is a Lurcher (I think mainly Whippet x Saluki) who came home with me from the kennels I work at after being found as a stray. She was also pregnant 😭.

Tia went in for her spay yesterday so isn't feeling too great at the moment. But no more babies for this girl.

Isn't she just beautiful 💕 to say I'm obsessed with her is an understatement.

17/08/2023

I went to Chester Zoo again last week and well obviously......

16/04/2023

10/04/2023

Beautiful Rose who was adopted off me some time ago! So thankful to people caring for these birds. Please give this page a follow.

Hi cuties 🥰

09/04/2023

The girls are back on egg sitting duties 🙄

Seriously though my girl want to prove the world wrong when people say coturnix quail don't go broody. The first if this year is Blanche who does actually go broody every year but always abandons her nests 😅 so I'm not holding out hope she'll go all the way this year either. Rose has already started looking at her nest and starting to build her own so who knows.

Sorry I've not been on this year, busy work life and buying my first home has taken up most of my time. Once my birds are in my new home (me too) then I'll be taking lots more pictures and videos again.

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas to all my followers.

I promise next year I'll get back to my over posting self! Have a lovley day guys and a happy new year.

I had to get this ornament of my first ever girl, White Lightning.

30/10/2022

Beautiful Lovey hanging out with her dove friends! I do not recommend keeping domestic pigeons and doves together, this was done at first for Loveys best interest and she has been fine but will eventually be going back with her own kind.

16/10/2022

So sorry for not being active this and last month guys, I've been busy in work. Here is a feral pigeon couple I saw today!

09/09/2022

Diamond dove boys Quartz and Scarab

06/09/2022

🥬🥬

03/09/2022

28/08/2022

Everybody say hello to some new baby quails 😍 I don't like to make a post about them until they hatch as anyone who knows coturnix quails knows how rare its supposed to be for them to go broody. Well mum has hatched out 9 babies, 8 of which are doing well, there is one who is struggling but I'm also feeding him to make sure he gets a good start. Sophia the hen was hatched under her mum last year for anyone who has been following us for some time may remember. All the girls in this hatch will be staying but the boys (depending on how many) may need to find new homes eventually. How cute are these guys tho!!

20/08/2022

I went back to Chester Zoo the other day and had rhe chance to capture more photos of the pigeons and doves!

14/08/2022

💔💔💔

And just like that, Lefty's Place was suddenly left without the joy and happiness of this one huge effervescent hen who was so very enthusiastic about life and corn....mostly corn.

Ludo was found hiding underneath crates at an abattoir in April 2022. She had somehow escaped the hands of workers and made a dash for her life. She had to watch whilst all her friends were hung upside on shackles and sent to their deaths from her hiding spot. My good friend found her that afternoon and after a chase ensued, she caught her. As soon as she arrived, I knew she wouldn't be with us long enough. She was huge. Broiler chickens (chickens bred for meat) are bred to grow as large as possible in just 5-7 weeks and Ludo was on the very large size (hence why I named her "Ludo") and I just knew the time with this precious happy girl was not going to be long enough.

She flew in to our world and made it so full of smiles. There was not a day that we didn't laugh at her complete obsession for corn and her love of all things about life. I watched worried as her run turned in to a jog, then turned in to a waddle as her body just got bigger and bigger.

With all the help I could give her, I just could not stop that selectively bred body from taking her away from the life she loved. There was no stopping it. Our Fat Baby left so suddenly that we are still trying to process the giant space she has left behind.

She is buried in the garden she so loved to bathe in - the garden she is pictured sitting in in this image. She was one in a million who got to live, be loved and be buried instead of being eaten by a human. That is something I hold on to.

Darling, happiest girl - find that Bobby Bob Bob and all the LP chickens who are waiting for you. Your happiness will never be forgotten.

*Ludo's rock on her grave ,painted by Wendy Churchill, is pictured in the comments.

14/08/2022

Another baby dove 🙈 this little one is from my albino pair, Cloud & Lafiette

03/08/2022

6 years of loving you ❤️

(It's my mums hand)

01/08/2022

Baby dove has grown a lot ❤️

30/07/2022

Turtle doves have declined by 98% since the 1970s, but there is hope.

Thanks to the support of volunteers, farmers, bird clubs and other organisations, the first national turtle dove survey took place in 2021. The results are sobering, but with research showing the main drivers of decline to be habitat loss and unsustainable hunting during their migration, we can find solutions.

Operation Turtle Dove is a partnership project driving restoration and creation of turtle dove breeding habitat and science, species action planning and international policy work helped lead to a hunting ban along parts of the western flyway in 2021.

With the right conservation action, we can turn things around for turtle doves in the UK.

29/07/2022

Lovley Quartz 💙

28/07/2022

Splash splash

27/07/2022

Big lad Apache 💙

26/07/2022

Some of my fantails on their fake eggs 😄🥚

25/07/2022

Everybody say hello to new Diamond dove boy Quartz 💙

23/07/2022

Dove nugget is growing quickly ❤️ Unfortunately it's sibling didn't make it 😔💔

18/07/2022

18/07/2022

The quails yesterday cooling off in some upturned substrate.

17/07/2022

Formally introducing Sapphire and Scarab, I've had these 2 delights a few weeks now and they have settled into the dove aviary greatly. They are a species native to Australia called diamond doves and are one of the smallest dove and pigeon specie in the world, being around the size of a canary. They come in many colours now in captivity. They were my first ever specie of dove way back when so its nice to have them again 😄 as you can see both have been plucked in their old home but they should begin to grow their feathers back soon. Its quite common practice to keep these little guys in with finches etc but birds like finches often pluck them bald to add their feathers to their nests. I do not recommend keeping them together for this reason.