AN ANIMAL loving Grasmere resident took a lost homing pigeon under his wing last week in a bid to reunite it with its owner.

The bird had found its way into a space behind Ambleside's Co-op store on Compston Road.

Team leader, Frank Sharp, encountered the pigeon for the first time last Tuesday (May 1) although he said he thought it had been there prior to that.

"I could see that it had rings on its ankles," he said. "So it wasn't wild. It obviously belongs to someone and I know they get lost sometimes or they get tired or hurt so we gave it some food and some water thinking it would eat it and get itself back together and carry on."

However, three days later and the pigeon was still there.

"It kept disappearing during the day but then coming back when the sun came down to roost," he said. "It obviously had no intention to leave."

Mr Sharp, 35, said that the bird seemed 'reluctant to fly' but was uninjured. He decided to look up on a homing pigeon website what he should do next and the advice was to try and catch it.

"It was very tame and I managed to catch it very easily," he said. "And as soon as I had hold of it it was obviously used to being handled."

He was able to track down the pigeon's owner via the code on its ankle ring. It came to light that the bird's home was in Moffat, Scotland.

And while waiting for the bird's owner to contact him, Mr Sharp went the extra mile by taking it home with him.

"I hadn't heard anything from this guy so I thought there's nowhere safe to keep it at work really," he said.

"And at home I had a little cage so I thought best thing was to keep it at home so I knew it wouldn't get hurt."

He said that his wife 'wasn't best pleased' but she was 'used' to her husband doing those sort of things.

"The pigeon's owner was very pleased," Mr Sharp, who grew up on a farm, said. "The first thing he asked was if I was a pigeon keeper myself and he was quite surprised that somebody had bothered with it if they don't look after pigeons themselves.

"But I love animals and I don't want to see them get hurt or lost. I want to try and help them where I can."

Unfortunately Mr Sharp did not manage to meet the pigeon's owner to find out where it had been travelling but said that the pair have now been reunited.