“designated sex area”
Snerk!
This may be of interest to the pigeon lovers.
Damn, that made me cry a teeny bit. I hate reading those stories.
I salute our brave carrier pigeons! I’ve actually read about Cher Ami before.
Marty and Katie are 23 and 22 days old today (Wednesday). They look about ready to hop out of the flower box. Started picking in the dirt under the nest and keep staring intently inside ar us and the floor of the balcony. Marty has feathery “socks” on his legs, like Tammy had, only gray.
We’ve not seen Little Pidgee since Monday, but I’m sure she’s around. We’re haven’t been home all day recently. Big Pidgee is still staying here at night alone, over on the rails.
If you change the flower box do you think that will bother Big and Little Pidgee? It wouldn’t drive them away, would it?
Nah, we’ve changed it before. We did wonder about that at first, but we changed the original flowerpot to the flower box, then changed that one for the present one, and they’ve always accepted it. This one’s getting really cruddy now; it’s got to go once the squabs leave.
Thursday morning now, and Marty and Katie are 24 and 23 days old. No sign of Little Pidgee since Monday noontime. Big Pidgee seems to be doing all of the parenting now himself. We’re not here all day, but still, it seems odd she won’t show up in the morning. Big Pidgee’s still sleeping here at night.
Yesterday evening (Wednesday evening), Marty, at age 23 days, hopped out of the box. I was not here, but the wife saw it. He looked around a bit but did not wander far from the flower box. Stood and squealed at Dad, who had already settled in for the night on the rails; Dad just stared at him. Then he tried to hop back into the flower box but could not. This happened once to Pepper in the previous batch, and I had to give her a boost. But the wife is nervous about picking them up, so she just watched. It took Marty three tries, flapping his wings the whole time, but he made it back up there. Hasn’t left it since. Both squabs have been practicing their wing flapping.
While Katie is light gray with Big Pidgee’s markings on top, she has a beautiful snow-white underbelly. And the white feathers often poke through a bit on the “shoulders” of her wings, which looks pretty snazzy really.
Little Pidgee, the mother, returned yesterday afternoon (Friday afternoon) after a four-day absence. I suppose she may have stopped by some afternoon when the wife and I were away, but I somehow doubt that. She never appeared in the mornings and certainly did not spend the night here. She slept here last night and stayed close to Big Pidgee. we’re wondering if she had some sort of Big Adventure.
We’re thinking now that Marty must have fallen out of the box on Wednesday, because he hasn’t ventured out since. It seems like it would be easy to fall out, and we don’t know why it doesn’t happen more often. They’re always getting toward the edge and pushing each other. As I recall without looking for it in this thread, they start hopping out of the box for real at about three weeks, and it’s coming up on three weeks now, next Monday and Tuesday.
D’oh! :smack: They passed three weeks this week. It’s four weeks old they’re coming up on. Looking back, I see that Sammy, in the last batch, first hopped out of the flower box at 25 days; Marty is now 26 days and Katie 25 days. They’ll be out soon, I’m sure.
EDIT: Big drama! In her excitement at getting fed by Big Pidgee, Katie just now fell out of the box! I may have to help her back in. 
SECOND EDIT: She hopped back in okay.
And Marty hopped out to follow after Little Pidgee. Got back into the box okay. But Katie definitely fell out earlier. Plunk! Funny to watch.
So now they’ll be crapping everywhere this weekend.
Monday morning. Manny is a full four weeks old today, Katie tomorrow. They hop in and out of the box a lot now but prefer the security of the box. But now they can run and ambush the parents for a feeding when the parents are getting friendly over in the designated sex area. The parents have been doing it so much lately that Little Pidgee must be “preggers” by now.
We cleaned the balcony yesterday, but with the entire family staying here at night and the squabs running around some, it already looks like we didn’t clean at all. But we did. I moved the box to the other side of the balcony, and the squabs hopped out and ran back to their usual corner. They did not seem surprised to find the box they just hopped out of gone, like that one batch did, but they seem to feel a sense of security just in that corner. I sort of herded them away so the wife could clean. Started petting them. We may have gotten their genders mixed up, because I swear if you only think about touching Marty, he starts squealing like a little girl, but Katie will tolerate it. She’s not crazy about it, but she’ll let you if there’s no escape. I became brave and picked Katie up! The wife has a niece who keeps a couple of doves, and one time she showed me how to pick them up. It’s a technique I’d read about, too. Slip one hand underneath from the front, middle fingers parted to slip around the legs (they can’t crap in your hand this way, too), while the other hand goes on top, gently keeping the wings down so they don’t flap everywhere. Again, Katie is not fond of this but seems to think it doesn’t suck too much. Soft soft. Now I can’t stop picking her up.
Marty and Katie keep flapping their wings and have become briefly airborne by about an inch. And this morning, Katie did a short flight from mid-balcony into the flower box.
I have read that typically, the first hatched is male, and the second is female, but I guess you never know. But, your guesses so far have probably been right.
I’m SO relieved that Little Pidgee came back! I was really starting to worry about her, especially after reading how many pidgeons got lost during that contest. Whew!
And your stories about Marty and Katie’s escapades are hilarious!
Do you have names picked out for the next batch yet?
Yes. The wife wants to name them Mickey and Holly, after the Woody Allen and Dianne Wiest characters in Hannah and Her Sisters.
Marty and Katie are FAT little guys. They definitely look like little pigeons now, but they are so much fatter than their mother. Definitely not starving. Little Pidgee is bigger in that she’s longer but a lot more sleek and toned than the fat little squabs. These parents always seem to produce good-looking, healthy children. Are there ever any pigeons with birth defects?
Plus I keep attributing them with Western-male-perception human characteristics.
Well, if you can’t anthropomorphize your birds, what the hell can you anthropomorphize?
Tuesday morning, and Marty and Katie are 29 and 28 days old now, respectively. They’re both a ull four weeks old and looking like real little pigeons. If you saw them alone and not with a larger adult, you wouldn’t know they were still babies. Teenagers, I guess. This is the age when the wife and I can’t get much work done at home because we can’t stop watching their antics, now that they can run around and practice flapping their wings.
I picked Marty up today. Poor little guy. He seemed convinced His Time Had Come. I’ll have to stop that, or I might give him a little heart attack! Katie’s more like “Ah, damn! Not again.” She’s much more fun to pick up. :D.
We’ll be away for a few days next week over New Year’s, so they’ll all have some peace. I wonder if the squabs will still be around then; when we return should be close to the time we expect them to leave.
Will try to load new photos soon.
Whoa! Marty just made his first real flight! Age 29 days. The first one either of us saw anyway. I was sitting here at the computer and suddenly heard this desperate scratching at one of the dining-area windows. There was a pigeon trying to land not on the ledge at the bottom, but rather about the middle of the window, the part we can actually swing open. There’s no purchase there, and so it kept flapping and scrabbling. I look at the balcony, and there’s no Marty there. It’s Marty! He finally gave up and flew back to the balcony. Good-oh!
The entire family is out there now. As with every batch, the squabs clearly get more excited about Dad than they do with Mom.
Christmas Day, and Marty and Katie are 31 and 30 days old, respectively. They were gone from the balcony this morning! Looked out and saw them both up on a window frame on the floor above, lounging around and taking in the world. Katie’s first known flight of significance. And now they’re gone. Off exploring. The last batch was about 45 days old before they disappeared completely.
Big Pidgee was around earlier, looking at me accusingly. But hey, what can I do? Sammy and his partner, who has come to be called The Stranger, flew in and looked around a bit, then left. The Stranger bears a lot of similar markings to Big Pidgee, so much so that we’re wondering if they’re siblings. Hope Sammy’s not fooling around with his own aunt! The Stranger has a goofy splotcht face, but the body markings, including the little white “paint splashes” on the throat, are close to the same.
Katie and Big Pidgee just flew in briefly a moment ago. Another one, too, who might have been Little Pidgee but flew away too quickly to tell. All left again.
Trying to load new photos to the website now, but it’s taking forever. Need to leave soon, so I may have to post those here this evening or tomorrow.
Either way, have a Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too. Thanks for the insight into the world of pigeons!
Ditto. Creatures that I would dismiss as “feathered rats” have proven to be rather interesting.