Good to have you back! Do you have a cast or something on your shoulder?
Thanks. No, my arm is in a sling. I’ve gone from not being able to use it at all on Thursday to using it more than I should today (Saturday) and so having it hurting now tonight. Have lots of pills to take for the next month or so.
Just a little update. Sammy and Pepper are 13 and 11 days old today (Tuesday), respectively. I’ve taken a few photos, but my freshly operated-on shoulder has prevented me from taking very many. They don’t look all that different from photos of the other batches anyway, although this new set is starting to get a few feathers, and we don’t think there’ll be any white this time, just some gray. We’ll see.
They can stand briefly. Sammy especially seems curious about what’s around him. Pepper just likes to sleep. Will take some fresh photos once they start getting a more distinctive look.
Little Pidgee has reached the stage where she just perches nearby on a balcony rail at night instead of staying in the box with the squabs. This means more shit to clean up. 
But the good news is that with my shoulder in recovery, the wife will have to get out there and clean it up. 
Another small update. Little Pidgee is out there now wandering around, but not getting too close to the squabs. We’ve seen this before. She seems to be trying to entice the squabs to come to her, much as humans try to get their babies to stand up and take their first steps. The squabs keep raising up for Mama, and she’s just sort of staring at them. She’s not being mean, she fed them earlier; I’m sure she’s trying to get teach to walk and leave the nest.
They sound adorable! Hope your shoulder heals soon!
12 and 14 days old today (Wednesday). They’re looking more like they’ll both be different shades of gray. No white in this batch apparently. Will try to post new photos in a few days.
The squabs are 16 and 18 days old today (Sunday). They’re going to be really pretty birds, too. The markings are coming out much more clearly. We’ve extended Sammy and Pepper’s names a little, to Fat Sammy and Evil Little Pepper. All of the squabs have gone through a “heavy” stage during which they bulk up a bit, but Sammy really got hefty. We’ve also noticed that squabs will go through a minor “snapping stage” around two weeks that lasts for maybe a week. Go outside and they’ll stand up and sort of snap at you while remaining in place. We still haven’t decided if they’re trying to defend themselves or grab for food; it looks like they’re being aggressive, but then we notice they do it to the parent, too, if it’s not quickly forthcoming with food, like they’re desperate to be fed. Whichever it is, little Pepper really made a show of it, so we dubbed her Evil Little Pepper, but now at 16 and 18 days, they’ve pretty much stopped that.
With my shoulder still recuperating, the wife gave the balcony a good cleaning today, while I ran buckets of water for her and handed her suplies. The shit was realy piling up out there. It had been clean for so long, then Bam! The squabs became old enough to stick their butts over the side and take a crap. I helped move the flower box to the other side of the balcony, and the poor squabs seemed convinced that this was it, their time was up. The poor little guys always look sort of freaked out when we move the box for cleaing, especially the first time we do it to them. These two held up okay, though. We even petted them a little, although that seemed only to convince them further that their time had come.
Here are some new photos:
First, here is one of Sammy, left, and Pepper, 9 and 7 days old, respectively.
This one is two days later, with Big Pidgee, the father, and the two squabs, aged 9 and 11 days.
Here they are the next day, Sammy, 12 days, in the rear and Pepper, 10 days. You can tell that Sammy’s starting to put on some weight now.
The rest of these were all taken today, during and right after the balcony cleaning. Again, today Pepper is 16 days old and Sammy 18 days. They still have a lot of their yellow baby fuzz sticking out in odd ways, but their markings are becoming clearer. This one gets up close and personal with Sammy.
Here is Sammy in front, with Pepper hiding behind big brother. For much of the cleaning, Pepper kept her head stuck underneath Sammy afraid to look.
This one shows their markings really well. That’s Sammy on the right; he’s developing a really funky dark pattern on gray. Pepper is taking after her mother, showing almost all gray with a single dark band cutting across the wings.
And now here they are moved back to their usual spot. Sammy on the left and sort of in front, Pepper on the right.
And they switched for this shot. That’s Pepper in front now and Sammy behind.
And of course, you can see all of the photos for this third batch of squabs on one page here.
LOL! They are so CUTE with that yellow fuzzy stuff sticking out!
This pair seems to crap more than the others combined! We just cleaned the balcony yesterday, and now there’s fresh shit everywhere today (Monday) just outside the flower box (they hang their butts over the edge and let fire). Both of them will walk around the inside the box now and stand for long periods, but they’ve not yet taken the big step of hopping out of the nest for a walkabout. That doesn’t seem to come until at last 3 weeks, and they’re 17 and 19 days old today, so maybe in a few days. The mother leaves them alone at night now and stays somewhere else.
The parents really seem to appreciate the water we leave out for them. They’re always taking long drinks upon arrival.
This morning (Sunday morning), at age 25 days, Sammy took his first hop out of the flower box. About time, too, as he’s almost adult size. Fat Sammy. He’d been perching on the edge occasionally for a few days now but couldn’t quite make himself shove off into the world until now. He had a little look around that end of the balcony and discovered the water dish. It’s always great when they discover water for the first time. He seemed appropriately amazed, taking in a big drink then splashing around inside the bowl. Pepper, 23 days old now, was also amazed. She was not sure what the hell big brother was up to. Sammy returned to the box after his little adventure and is resting now.
It’s time for another cleaning today. Will have to take more photos. Sammy’s the biggest squab we’ve had so far.
They are really entertaining!
Sammy’s ventured out a couple of times now this morning, and Pepper really freaks out when he goes, seems absolutely shocked. She won’t leave the box yet herself and is visibly relieved when Sammy returns, helping him preen his feathers.
You know, for the next set of squabs you really need to have a naming contest. I could bribe with cookies, but I don’t know how long they’d take to get there!
Well, to tell you the truth, I think we’ve settled on Marty and Katie for the next batch, but let me know what type of cookies we’re talking about, and maybe we can work it out for the one after.
I hope there will be a next batch. Big Pidgee was oddly absent today (still Sunday here). We were home all day and did not see him, which is unusual. Only Little Pidgee. Hopefully, he just snuck in and out when we weren’t looking and has not been eaten by a cat or something.
But it was a day of high drama for the squabs, especially Sammy. As I mentioned earlier, he started leaving the flower box and discovered water. He splashing around in the water dish some and even did the “synchronized swimming” bit that Manny in the previous batch would do, lying on one side with the opposite wing stuck up in the air.
Then there was the balcony cleaning. My shoulder’s still a bit off, so it was mostly the wife again this time. I moved the flower box over to the other side of the balcony, and Sammy hopped out. He’s not quite “friendly” with us, still wary but somewhat less wary than some of the other squabs. He wandered over a couple of times to see what we were doing. Does not like to be petted, though. Pepper, who at 23 days is two days behind her big brother, kept stretching her neck out over the rim and finally got up the nerve to hop down herself. But then when she wanted back in the box, she couldn’t get back in, couldn’t quite hop back up even flapping her wings. I finally had to scoop her up and set her down inside it! She didn’t like being picked up, but she liked being back in the box.
Getting on toward dark, Little Pidgee stopped by for a feeding. Sammy hopped out and ran to her and so got fed on the spot, but Pepper didn’t want to leave the box again. Kept squealing for Mama, but Mama left right after feeding Sammy! She returned a short time later but got spooked by something and took off immediately. (The parents stay elsewhere at night now.) So Sammy got fed, had a dip in the “pool”, then hopped back into the flower box for a snooze, leaving little Pepper whining pitifully. The wife felt so sorry for her that she broke our rule – the rule she herself set – of not feeding them. We give them water, but there’s abundant food resources for birds in our neighborhood, so we let them find their own meals. But the wife ground up some cracker crumbs, and I set them in the box by Pepper, who promptly ignored them, just like Snowy in the first batch did the one time I tried it with her. Now we’ll probably have more ants.
I took some more photos today, but I’ve tried uploading them to the website twice, and a glitch occurs each time. I’ll try again in the morning.
Pepper doesn’t know about dry food yet. You could try wetting the crumbs with water first, but if pepper isn’t ready to eat found food yet, there may be no point.
The squabs have been pecking around in the dirt in their box for a few days now looking for little bits. And this morning (Monday morning), it looks like most of the crumbs have been eaten by someone, so that’s good. Although maybe by a parent?
And good news! Big Pidgee stopped by for a feeding today, so he’s alive and well. In fact, he’s out there right now as I’m typing this, and the squabs are squealing up a storm. 
Also, Pepper has been getting in and out of the box on her own this morning. I think she was just a little too stressed yesterday what with everything going on.
The photos are uploaded now, and here they are below. All of these were taken yesterday afternoon (Sunday afternoon) at ages 25 days (Sammy) and 23 days (Pepper).
In this one, I’ve just moved the box over to the other side, and Sammy has hopped out (knocking that little piece of crap on the floor off of the edge in the process.)
Here, Pepper is contemplating following her brother. Pepper is looking a lot like Little Pidgee, the mother, despite the yellow baby fuzz still clinging to her head.
This one shows Sammy’s markings well. He’s really turning into a pretty bird. And you can see a little iridescence on the neck now.
And Pepper did it! Here they both are out of the box. I had to assist Pepper when she wanted back in later.
And cleaning done, here they with their box back in the normal spot, Sammy on the left and Pepper on the right, both necks looking a little iridescent. And one more here.
Those were all yesterday. It’s Monday here now, and the squabs are 24 and 26 days old today.
Man, I wish there were some way we could teach them to hang their butts over the edge of the balcony and crap out in that direction.
Saturday morning, and the squabs are 29 and 31 days old. They’re doing little practice flights across short stretches of our balcony, sort of just becoming airborne. And they can get up into the dirt of the potted tree that we call their “living room.”
They keep looking out now over the bottom ledge of the balcony. Pepper hopped up onto it but had to flap her wings to keep from falling back onto this side. I hope she doesn’t fall off the other side!
Sunday and the squabs are 30 and 32 days old now. I believe the last batch left home at ages 39 and 41 days, so we may not have these much longer. They’ve grown big, almost adult size. And I swear these two – and the wife agrees with me – these two crap MUCH more than either of the first two batches.
We did a really thorough balcony cleaning today. Sammy and Pepper both sat on the lower ledge of the balcony. That’s where Sammy has often started to hang out anyway, sort of tucked snugly underneath the lowest rail. Took some photos and will post in the next few days. We were a little worried, because the squabs had not advanced much beyond practice hoverings a couple of inches in the air while flapping their wings or little short flights forward, so we were worried they might become startled and fall off, but no. Actually, at one point Sammy DID go off the edge, intentionally or not I don’t know, but he did manage to fly a bit in place and then return to the balcony. Way to go, Sammy!
Tuesday, the squabs are now 32 and 34 days old, and they’ve been making their first real flights to somewhere today. This morning, Sammy flew up to the balcony above, then returned. Later, Big Pidgee appeared over on the nearby window frames and seemed to be trying to entice them over. Sammy was suddenly gone, but he didn’t fly over to father. Returned later. I didn’t see him leave or return that time, so he must be making a tour of the neighbors’ balconies. Then while Sammy was gone, Pepper flew over to the nearest frame – but not all the way to father, who was farther away – our dining-area window and stood there squealing like a baby. That was Pepper’s only flight I saw, but Sammy’s been flying back and forth. Pepper is two days younger than Sammy, so seeing big brother fly must be prompting her; she may need to get used to it a little more.
Both parents are out on the window frames now, and the squabs are wandering around the balcony and staring out at the world.
I’m still enjoying your updates, Sam.