Joe Magee, GC 184 writes  from oil platform Green Canyon 184 "Jolliet"

Thought you guys might find this interesting. I work 100 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. We have a pigeon that has been out here for about 14 years. He has picked up a couple of friends over the last year or so. Usually when a new bird arrives they only stay a shot time. There is one that has been here about two years. We call the older bird Roger.

Roger arrived here around 1996. This is an oil platform. It's a floating tension leg platform in 1800 ft. of water. I don't guess Roger has bonded with anyone in particular although he seems to shy away from people who don't normally work here. We can get close to him but he won't let you touch him. He's funny to watch. Sometimes we have crews that come out and work on the platform and there will be a lot of activity during the day. You don't see him much when this is going on.

In the evening when things settle down Roger will come up to check everything out. If hawks are around he hides. He's been there and done that. We see him all the time doing his little dance. I don't know what he thinks he's doing. We bring out bird seed to feed him. At the present time there are two other pigeons on board. As I said before one of them has been here a year or two, the other one about 6 months. They are not as friendly as Roger. He doesn't have much to do with the other birds. I guess he's shy.

Sometimes Roger does a courtship dance -- usually in front of some sort of protrusion like a piece of pipe sticking up. He'll dance around for several minutes with his neck puffed up. I think he thinks its his girlfriend. The picture shows him dancing around the pat eye. The other two pigeons that we have out here are one white with black spots and one with a light blue-grey color.

I have worked all over the Gulf of Mexico and have never been on another platform that has attracted a bird and had it stay around. Usually they will rest and go on or more times than not they die.