We Have Pigeon Eggs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Thanks. We did change out the flower box yesterday (Sunday). Threw out the old one and installed a new box and fresh soil, and good-quality soil to boot. (The wife uses the extra in her potted plants.) Little Pidgee stopped by on the window frames briefly to look, so she’s still around. And this is curious, but Big Pidgee kept hanging arond on the window frames and balconies above and below us with a twig in his beak, once even landing on the edge of our balcony like he was waiting for us to finish and get out of the way. But after we did finish, it was a long time before he did show up, and he had no twig. He seemed mystified about what had hapened to al the twigs strewn on the floor, and there were a lot. We tossed them all out.

He still sleeps here at night, leaving at daybreak. Just a little while ago (it’s about 11am right now), he returned for some water and is now snoozing on his nighttime roost. He at any rate obviously still clearly considers this home. Did you see the recent Weird Earl’s website showing Cute Things Falling Asleep? If we had a video camera, I’d take footage of Big Pidgee falling asleep. Really cute!

So we’ll see what develops. Everything is fresh and squeeky clean for them now.

Yes, pigeons do supposedly mate for life, so I suspect we’ve not seen the last of Little Pidgee. at least, I hope we haven’t. We tried bread crumbs in the flower box before, and they turned their beaks up at them. Besides, we don’t want the ant problem to become worse. That’s settled down some, but we still see them occasionally. We’re in a neighborhood with abundant food resources for pigeons, though, so we’ll just stick with water.

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Maybe Little Pidgee is just tired of plopping out eggs like a machine. How many generations do we have now? She’s done her part for the pigeon population.

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Could be. But considering how often the parents were “doing it” out there recently, I’d be surprised if she wasn’t preggers.

But do pigeons just keep cranking out eggs nonstop? Or do they call a halt for a while?

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And that was …?

The wife said Sammy stopped by yesterday. Looked around, drank some water, checked out the new flower box. The old one was the one he was hatched in. And when Big Pidgee showed up just before dark, the wife said he definitely flew down from somewhere immediately above, so maybe they have found a nice deserted balcony for a change. But Big Pidgee sleeps here at night, so we’ll have to be satisfied with that for now. And the Switch never happened that later before, so I don’t think he’s coming here just after the Switch. It’s relatively cool now – we still keep the windows open but don’t have to run the fan now – and maybe that’s caused a change in their habits.

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About 12 noon now, and I look over, and there’s Katie from the last batch and Sammy from the third batch out there together! Katie’s 7 weeks old today (Tuesday! They’re wandering around checking the place out.

EDIT: Oh oh! May be a little incest action going on. They started kissing. I wonder if they know they’re siblings. But they can’t be sexually mature yet, I thought. Katie’s not even 2 months old, and Sammy’s just under 4 months.

hey just flew away.

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I am cracking up here! You are so funny with your pidgee sex updates! And the fact that you recognize each individual pigeon that shows up absolutely astounds me! :smiley:

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Maybe they’re just playing ‘doctor.’ :wink:

I tell you, it’s a soap opera!

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Their markings are generally unique. A couple of them – Pepper, Marty – look very much like Little Pidgee, but the others turned out pretty unique. Especially Sammy. His markings are very distinctive. Katie looks a lot like her father, except that the white “mask” of her faher has spread all over her head, giving it a kind of speckled look. I managed to take a photo of Sammy and Katie yesterday, but through the screen.

Big Pidgee was out there this morning, then flew to the window frames when I changed his water. Now get this: He stayed on the window frames for quite a while, but then this pigeon we’ve come to call The Ghost, because it looks very pale, landed on the edge of our balcony, and Big Pidgee immediately flew over to chase it away! This despite there being no eggs or squabs to protect. He clearly considers this balcony his territory.

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Thursday morning over here, and there was an odd occurrence. A little while ago, the pigeon we call The Stranger stopped by. We used to call her Spottyhead, for obvious reasons. Markings so much like Big Pidgee that we figure it’s a relative, a sister or something. The white spottiness on the head is like Big Pidgee’s “mask” gone crazy all over the head; Katie has it but not so bad. We figured it’s a “her” because this is the one Sammy, whom we’ve designated a male, was hanging around with for a while.

Well, The Stranger was looking around when Big Pidgee showed up. But instead of chasing her away, he started cooing and went into a mating dance! Right in the designated sex area. Unfortunately for Big Pidgee, The Stranger wasn’t interested and flew away.

Poor guy. We’re getting the impression that he’s lonely now. Dunno what happened to Little Pidgee; we’ve spotted her enough briefly to know she’s okay. Again, maybe she has eggs somewhere else, because we never see Big Pidgee after about 11:30am or noon until it’s about dark, when he returns to sleep. Still stays here every night without fail.

He was resting on his bedtime roost after The Stranger left, and I took a picture of that. Been busy since getting back into town, but I’ll post the new pics for sure this weekend.

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Sunday morning, and as promised here are some new photos. Most of these were taken before we went upcountry for New Year’s.

Here we see Katie, age 31 days, doing a one-legged stand, on December 26. Marty, 32 days, is preening himself.

Two days later on December 28, we see them again here, ages 33 and 34 days. Notice Katie’s white “shoulder.” And then one here with father Big Pidgee at the top.

The next day, December 29, ages 34 and 35 days. In this one, you can see Marty’s little socky feet; he’s checking me out. Here and here is Katie falling asleep; if you switch from one to the other quickly, it’s almost like a little video of her dropping off. and then brother and sister lounging around together here.

Then on December 30, the day we flew out of Bangkok, it’s bathtime here and here. Afterwards, a snooze on the window frames here.

And then they were pretty much gone by the time we returned home, except for a couple of brief glances. But as mentioned, Katie and Sammy – Sammy of the third batch – stopped by this past Tuesday. Here they are, Katie in front, age 7 weeks. Sammy was just one day short of 17 weeks. Also as mentioned, they started getting it on with a little incest action. I wonder if they can tell they’re siblings. Sammy had stopped by the day before; no doubt all of the siblings remain in close proximity.

And then here is one of Big Pidgee, the Lonely Guy. That is exactly where Big Pidgee sleeps every night, from dusk to dawn. Since we don’t go to bed at nightfall, he stares in at us for a few hours. We’re probably disturbing him, but he still returns every evening. He’ll leave at daybreak but then usually return mid-morning for a while; that’s when I took this shot. Note the clean new flower box, waiting for an occupant.

And you can see all of the photos for Marty and Katie, the fourth batch, on page here. Just click on any photo.

This morning (Sunday morning), Big Pidgee was here when Little Pidgee showed up again. First time in days that we’ve seen her. Big Pidgee got all excited and, while not exactly going into a mating dance, did begin pacing abck and forth on the floor of the balcony. But Little Pidgee stayed up on the rail. Big Pidgee flew up. Little Pidgee flew away, and Big Pidgee followed. Something’s definitely up with those two.

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Awww, that’s your bathtub? Too small! Go for something wider - like 15-18" - a bathtub built for two. :slight_smile: You might be able to rekindle their romance.

Seriously, my bath tray was wide enough for two to flap around in, and they seemed to like that.

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Well, those are the squabs taking a bath. I should have made that more clear. Katie’s the one in the “tub” in both. We’ve never seen Big or Little Pidgee take one. The squabs always seem to enjoy a splash, though. That’s really the water dish they’re bathing in, too.

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That’s what I did too. I got a wide shallow plant tray and used it for both drinking and bathing. Well, the pigeons, not me. Most days if was for drinking, but about once a week or so, suddenly it was bath day, and there’d be a little queue of pigeons waiting their turn. On some of those days, I had to spray it out and change the water twice. Pigeons get dusty.

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I’ve been on holiday for week (sun, surf all the good stuff) but as soon as we had all unpacked I raced here to see if there were new babies.

I sooooooooooo want pidgee babies!

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Alas! Little Pidgee has decided to hang out somewhere else. :frowning: But we’re not through with pidgee action yet. Big Pidgee still returrns here to sleep every night. He just stopped by awhile ago for some water. I think he recognizes this is a sweet deal, as we change the water two or three times a day and give him a space safe from cats and other predators at night. We have no way of knowing what he’s thinking, but we do wonder what’s going on in his mind as he sits there and stares in at us at night.

Marty stopped by just a little while ago! Eight weeks old today (Monday). Looks a LOT like his mother, Little Pidgee, but does not act like her. Still acts young; keeps staring all around him. A white pigeon with a few black speckles tried to land on our top rail but kept slipping off and so flew away; we’ve seen, and Big pidgee has chased away, that one a few times.

Of course, there are a lot of other pigeons in the neighborhood, too, but lately we’ve noticed three or four flying around together, and although it’s hard to tell, they do seem to bear familiar markings. It’s difficult to explain the layout of our condo, but next to our bedroom is the wife’s dressing room, and there is a door in it that leads out to an open-air storage area. That is where the air-con compressors are located. Ours are screened off, because there have been problems with pigeons getting into that area in other units. The balcony is okay, but we don’t want pigeons living among our stored stuff. So this morning before I closed the windows – we keep them open at night – I could hear cooing coming from about the one above us. And also this morning I saw a pigeon or two flying away from and to there. Hard to catch more than a glimpse, but they did look sort of familiar. The people above us have that unit as a second home and are not there for long periods. I’m wondering if that could be where Little Pidgee finally ended up. I’ll be listening for squaling in the near future. :smiley:

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We don’t know if this means anything, but this morning (Wednesday morning), we saw that before we got up, someone had been digging around in the new flower box, and Little Pidgee hung out on a nearby window frame for a good part of the morning. (Also saw Katie on another window frame briefly.)

And speaking of Katie, the wife said she and Sammy stopped by yesterday, so it appears they may be an item, even if they are still too young to do the nasty. I onder if there’s any way they can tell they’re siblings. Probably not. So I wonder how much incest occurs in the animal world.

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Monday here, Chinese New Year Day, and I’m afraid this thread may be winding down now. No sighting at all of Little Pidgee since that last mention of her. We’ve spotted her mostly briefly and sporadically since returning from upcountry three weeks ago. We’re now convinced she’s laid eggs somewhere else.

But Big Pidgee is still hanging around. He sleeps here most nights – he stayed somewhere else overnight twice in the past six nights. But he keeps stopping by for water, and he does still sleep here most nights. He’ll leave at daybreak but will stay close by much of the morning. Since we rarely see him between late morning and dusk, we figure he’s pulling his shift on the eggs in the afternoon. But he will still stop by occasionally for water in the afternoon, too, seeming to fly from somewhere above, so we think they’ve found the balcony of a deserted unit.

Still, we’re not sure why Little Pidgee won’t come here even for some water. She always was the more skittish of the two, so maybe she finally just got fed up with our attention. But Big Pidgee seems to like us just fine. And one night last week, he was sleeping on his usual railing, when about 11pm he hopped down, climbed into the flower box and stayed there! He was still there when we went to bed a short time later. We’ve not seen him in it again, but we have seen signs that he’d been inside it. So maybe he can persuade Little Pidgee to move back sometime in the future.

Again, here is Big Pidgee’s setup at night. This is not a new photo, but rather one I ran before, but while this is daytime, it shows Big Pidgee in his nighttime spot and where the new flower box is.

We’ll keep the box out there and the water fresh. If anything new develops, rest assured I’ll mention it.

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Aw. I’m going to miss the pidgee reports. :frowning:
I’ve never followed a thread so long before – the Pigeon Dynasty Chronicles was my private title for it.

Thank you so much for writing and photographing it all for us.

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Thanks for saying you’ll keep an eye on it. I’ve loved following this thread, and have forwarded it to several other birdwatching friends.

I may bookmark it and take a look once in a while, just in case I miss something. I really do appreciate all the work you have gone to!

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No! This thread is not coming to an end.

We just need to convince Sam to build a pigeon condo and attract Big Pidgee another girlfriend, or maybe a new couple.