Poison panic becomes berry giggle!

Two nights ago I got an awful fright when I found the park pigeons' drinking water looking like this...



... when, just a few hours before, the water was perfectly transparent.
To show you the difference, this photo was taken after I'd washed and refilled two of the containers:



I collected some of the liquid, plus something that was on the bottom and looked like blackberries. At the park it looked black, but in strong light the liquid was blue.



Yesterday, just as I was setting off to a pharmaceutical lab to ask for a poison test, I suddenly saw identical berries on a tree at the park, 200m away from where the water containers are.



Mistery solved! They were mulberries...
The only question left is why somebody put them in the pigeons' water: Was it a prank, or did someone think that the vitamins would be good for them? I guess I'll never know...

...How odd?

That is strange but I'm glad it was just mulberries :Yes:

Do you suppose the pigeons, themselves, could have dropped them there. My pigeons do that with lettuce and bread.

Matilda wrote:

Do you suppose the pigeons, themselves, could have dropped them there. My pigeons do that with lettuce and bread.

I don't think so. There were no berries on the ground near the water containers, whilst there were enough of them IN the containers to make the water dark blue!
Also, there are another two water containers, much closer to the mulberry tree but less visible, and there wasn't a berry in them.

That really is a puzzler.
I'm glad it wasn't something hazardous.

Fancyfeathers wrote:

That really is a puzzler.
I'm glad it wasn't something hazardous.

Yeah, me too! I got such a fright when I first saw it!

Teresa wrote:

Fancyfeathers wrote:

That really is a puzzler.
I'm glad it wasn't something hazardous.

Yeah, me too! I got such a fright when I first saw it!

I'll bet you did.

It may have been something more sinister after all

I conducted an experiment, crushing some berries in water and leaving them for a day, and the solution was purple, not blue. That caused some niggly doubts.
Then a couple of days ago I had a long chat to the owner of a pet shop where I've been buying my pigeon supplies lately. He's brilliant, keeps pigeons himself and feeds the ones in the square in front of his shop. I mentioned the berry business, and the blue colour of the water, and his face froze. He said that, last year, when there was a poisoning not too far from there, the agent was a weedkiller which was added to their water, turning it a deep blue. :eek: :eek: :eek:
I don't know if that was the case. A weedkiller would have killed the plants over which I poured the liquid, wouldn't it? Either way, I've been extra vigilant. If somebody is trying to disguise poison by putting similarly-coloured berries in the water, then I'm up against a cold, calculating *******!
I spoke to the two young pharmacists who own my local chemist's. They love animals, and were very concerned. They offered to help in any way that was needed, including tackling the culprit.

I sincerely hope you don't have someone putting poison out for the pigeons. The thought makes me feel ill. That's how this all began for me with pigeons...one poisioned pigeon when I was just a little girl.

Yes, I remember you saying...
My post must be very uncomfortable reading for you, and for that I am very sorry, but the most we can learn about these crimes, the better we'll be able to recognise a potential danger, and stop it before anything happens.

Teresa wrote:

Yes, I remember you saying...
My post must be very uncomfortable reading for you, and for that I am very sorry, but the most we can learn about these crimes, the better we'll be able to recognise a potential danger, and stop it before anything happens.

No worries.
I agree with you.