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“To do this properly, you have to stand on Rose Duncan,” says pigeon patron Richard Hallahan. He’s referring to Duncan’s and partner Susie Malpee’s 1971 bronze plaque on the Manhattan Beach Pier’s Volleyball Walk of Fame.
Every day, for the past decade, regardless of the weather, Hallahan has left his Redondo Beach home of 40 years, promptly at 12:30 p.m., to feed the Manhattan pier pigeons.
The feedings began on May 31, 2000. In January of that year, Hallahan was visiting the pier when an emaciated, featherless pigeon with a bent beak approached him. Hallahan took the pigeon to the Avian & Exotic Animal Hospital, where Richard Woerpel, D.V.M. and his staff cared for “Manny” with regular feedings and beak clippings. Four months later, when Manny was ready to return to the wild, Hallahan took him back to the pier and fed him, along with a few other birds.
Hallahan is a former Navy fighter pilot who flew commercially for American Airlines and retired after 31 years. It was shortly after retirement that he found his next mission.
The tall, lanky aviator maneuvers swiftly when he feeds his pigeons. His manner is athletic and graceful, with a dash of pluck. His ever present sunglasses hide very round blue eyes. He owns a vigorous smile.
Hallahan starts scattering Rayee’s Heartland Wild Bird Feed (sunflower seeds and cornmeal) at the southeast corner of Morningside Drive and Manhattan Beach Boulevard, near the Vons Market. The birds follow him closely as he walks briskly down the south side of Manhattan Beach Boulevard toward the pier. He stops to scatter feed on the last block leading to the pier. An occasional sparrow joins the party.
Then he walks out on the pier, where he uses a hose attached to a faucet to make a puddle for the birds to drink and bathe. Pigeons use their beaks as straws. Most other birds need to toss their heads back to quench their thirst.
After making the puddle, Hallahan uses a sprinkler attachment to shower the birds.
They fluff up their wings as they walk in and out of the light spray while he scatters feed. The birds gather at his feet. He steps cautiously. Some of the birds alight on his arms while others eat out of his hand. Hallahan speaks to them softly.
What keeps him coming back?
“They’re dependent on me,” he said. “Plus it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. Plus, it keeps me close to nature.”
His favorite time is at the end of the feeding, he said, “once I have concluded that all the birds look okay, and the session has gone well. Usually I just observe that the daily feedings are making a difference, and hope that people’s reactions are favorable.”.
If he sees an injured bird, Hallahan will scoop it up, and place it in a brown grocery bag with feed on the bottom and holes punched in the sides. With the bird in the passenger seat of his car, he drives to Bay Animal Hospital where Kathy Gilman, D.V.M. and her staff see to its needs. Hallahan pays the pigeions’ hospitals bills.
“Manny’s feathered friends have prospered with him,” Hallahan wrote in a March 8, 2002 letter to the Avian & Exotic Animal Hospital. “His flock has been transformed from a sickly bunch of stragglers to a spirited group, able to perform spectacular feats of derring-do in close-formation flight….Thank you for helping to turn Manny’s pathetic early existence into a life worth living.” B
