RSPCA Friends of West Hatch Newsletter Autumn-Winter 2018 | issue 15 | Page 6

Pigeons ahoy!
Two pigeon squabs who were born on
the Royal Navy’s new carrier HMS Queen
Elizabeth and then accidentally set sail,
were brought to West Hatch this August
for rearing.

The orphaned chicks were discovered shortly
after the ship sailed from Portsmouth, bound
for the USA. The pair were estimated to be
around 10 days old and were found huddled
together by a sailor who heard tweeting
coming from a remote ledge high up on
one of the ship’s boat decks.

A careful rescue plan was put in place and
the chicks were brought into the warm
by sailors from the ship’s Seamanship
department.
After much research on ‘what baby pigeons
eat’, they were fed at regular intervals over
24 hours, with a mix of porridge and warm
water, administered from a syringe provided
by the ship’s Medical Centre with the tip of
a latex glove attached.

Sailors watched on proudly as the stowaways
flew for the very first time – albeit hitching
a ride in a Royal Navy Merlin Mk4 helicopter,
from 845 Naval Air Squadron, RNAS
Yeovilton. The squadron embarked in the
ship to take part in ‘WESTLANT 18’, HMS
Queen Elizabeth’s maiden voyage across
the Atlantic where she will embark F-35B
Lightning fighter jets for the very first time
for trials.

The chicks, christened ‘F-35’ and ‘Lightning’
by the Ship, were recovered by a helicopter
heading back to RNAS Yeovilton and taken
to West Hatch.

On arrival, the pigeons were examined by
our vet team and given a clean bill of health.
They quickly progressed from hand feeds to
self feeds and then spent a few weeks in an
aviary getting fit.
In early October they were released back
at the Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth where
they had been born just a few months earlier.