… which makes them the PERFECT pets!
(Hate the fuckers… Hate them Hate them[SIZE=“6”] HATE THEM!![/SIZE])
All my pleasure. We’ve really become attached to these guys, Big Pidgee especially. He seems to like us just fine and appreciates the water. But watching them fly around, I’m very glad we’re not trying to catch them to keep them in cages so they’ll stay here for sure. Not that I’m necessarily opposed to domesticated birds raised that way, but these guys really enjoy their freedom.
Tuesday morning here, and as usual Big Pidgee slept here last night. Climbed into the box at one point for a while. When he’s on the window frames in the mornings, he always seems to be searching upward, so we think for sure Little Pidgee is up there somewhere. He’s always cooing, too, there and sitting on the edge of the balcony, as if he’s trying to call to someone.
Nah, you’d love ours. They have distinct personalities, and Big Pidgee especially looks like a little toy stuffed animal sitting out there at night staring in, he’s so cute.
I don’t know if this means anything, but Big Pidgee flew back in a little while ago – late morning now – took a quick drink of water and then hopped into the flower box. Settled himself in, hunkered down to “lounge” in it. Then in a while, he was up and on the far edge of the balcony, his throat moving like he was cooing – the door was closed and radio on, so I couldn’t hear anything. And now he’s back in the flower box. Something seems to be up.
Hmmmm, perhaps he’s luring a new lover to his lair. 
Well, he DID start dancing in front of The Stranger that time. 
Things are picking up a bit on the pidgee front. Big Pidgee has not missed a night here since I last posted. Stops by quite a bit in the daytime, too, for water and, increasingly, to hang out in the flower box, often “lounging” in it for lengthy periods, sort of hunkering down instead of standing. No sign of Little Pidegee until this morning (Saturday morning). She was on a nearby window frame, but only briefly; then she left.
Big Pidgee flew down onto our balcony very shortly after Little Pidgee left. Not too long after that, the one we call The Ghost showed up. A very beautiful cream color. Big Pidgee’s chased her away before, but this time he went right into his mating dance! She was on the top rail, he was down on the balcony floor doing his little dance. (Remember, a couple of weeks ago Big Pidgee tried doing the dance with The Stranger, who was not interested.) We think The Ghost is rather young; she’s at least small. She seemed interested in our balcony, and we tried not to scare her. Flew down to the floor and actually hopped into the flower box to check it out. But I’m afraid Big Pidgee got a little TOO anxious. He followed her into the box, but she seemed to fear it might be a date-rape situation and fled. Poor Big Pidgee.
The wife said it looked just like he was trying to entice this innocent young thing into his boudoir to have his way with her. I have to admit that IS sort of the impression I got, too, even though the designated sex area is on the other side of the balcony.
So the wife and I head out into Bangkok for the day and return after dark. Big Pidgee is here, as usual … but so is Little Pidgee! She’s spending the night here. They were side by side on Big Pidgee’s usual night-time roosting rail. She seemed a little nervous that we showed up, but we’ve learned that pigeons really don’t want to fly at night, so she’s sort of stuck. But she did hop over into a nearby potted tree, then back on the rail on the other side of Big Pidgee, putting him between her and us.
But eventually, Big Pidgee moved into the flower box, where he’s lounging right now, while Little Pidgee is on the lower rail. As I recall without looking back through this thread, Little Pidgee would often leave the squabs alone at night after maybe 7-10 days. If there are squabs somewhere else around here, she may have reached that point. But why did she never show up here in the daytime for water? My wife really wants to understand these pidgees’ motivation for what they do.
Well anyway maybe, just maybe, there’ll be some more squabs here. Big Pidgee clearly likes this box; he spends enough time in it. They seem to think of this as some sort of home, even if it’s one of several.
What a GREAT story! I am so loving this Pidgee saga!! Yay Pidgees!
More promising news. Late Sunday morning now, and Little Pidgee and Big Pidgee have been in the flower box all morning acting real lovey. She’s still very nervous when the wife and I show up. At one point, we moved a little too suddenly, and she ran over to the other side of the balcony and flew to the window frames. Big Pidgee followed, and they were acting all lovey on the window frames. I took the opprtunity to change their water. They’re back in the flower box again now. As well as acting lovey, they’re both doing those little wing twitches that seem to signal affection, Big Pidgee especially. Just one wing. I managed to take a couple of photos and will post them sometime.
Little Pidgee has moved to the potted tree, the one they use for the “living room.” Big Pidgee’s still in the flower box.
Heh. Just wait til Little Pidgee learns about Big Pidgee dancing for those two other gals. I can hear him whining already:
[Ross] But we were on a break. [/Ross]
More good news. Not only did Little Pidgee spend the night again last night (Sunday night) for the second time in a row, but also they were doing the nasty again. They’d just arrived – first Big Pidgee, followed closely by Little Pidgee – and settled into the flower box. Then they both, seemingly simultaneously, hopped out of the box and headed over to the designated sex area, where they commenced kissing and other heavy petting, culminating in The Deed. Then they went back to the box. We find it immensely fascinating that they have a clearly delineated sex area.
So things are looking up for a new batch of squabs. Dunno what Little Pidgee’s problem was before, but she seems to have gotten over it.
And they’re out there right now, in the flower box, acting all lovey.
Hee hee hee hee hee! First the Superbowl, now the SuperPidgees! YAY!!!
Well, this IS Thailand, ya know.
Oh, this is MUCH more interesting than football!
And Little Pidgee was here for a third night. It’s looking good. The pattern now seems to be they sleep all night on the “perch” (the lowest railing; when Big Pidgee gets in the box, he doesn’t seem to stay there.) and hang out in the box all morning and much of the afternoon – maybe all of the afternoon, because I usually step out in the early PM, and the wife gets home anywhere from 5-7pm, so we can’t be sure they don’t head off somewhere in the meantime.
But if they do have squabs to feed somewhere, they’re not showing up very often to do it. I’m trying to think when the eggs could have been laid if there are other eggs, and I’m thinking with the time it takes to hatch, this is too soon to leave the squabs on their own all of the time. So we don’t know what happened. Maybe it’s a seasonal thing. Maybe something untoward happened to Little Pidgee’s eggs.
But they were Doing the Deed again yesterday afternoon. 
Haven’t started bringing in twigs for a new nest yet, though.
And we’ve spotted Marty from the last batch a couple of times, including this morning, over on the window frames.
Wednesday morning over here, and there’s more good news. Big Pidgee has started flying in twigs for a new nest. They work as a team like before: He flies one in and drops it in the box, and Little Pidgee arranges it. I’d say a new clutch of eggs is on the way, maybe in a couple of weeks.
Woo Hoo!
Why do the mating habits of common pigeons halfway around the world make me so happy?
When Big and Little Pidgee seemed to be “on the outs” it was sort of like a column from one of those old woman’s magazines “Can this marriage be saved?” I’m glad to see they got their problems worked out.
And when Big Pidgee was doing the dance for another female we wondered how little Pidgee would feel. But maybe she started it! Maybe some handsome pool boy pigeon tempted her for a while, but now she’s come home.
Yes, it’s quite a soap opera.
They haven’t brought many twigs in. Just a few yesterday (Wednesday), and today Big Pidgee seems to be in “guard” mode again, while Little Pidgee lounges in the box. This generally signals that she’s getting ready to lay eggs. Maybe it will be sooner than a couple of weeks.
They still sleep on the rail at night, and we’ve noticed they’ve “landscaped” the dirt in the flower box. When we put the new box with fresh dirt out there, we lowered it toward one end, as they seemed to do themselves in the past. But we had it sort of a flat shelf. They’ve scratched around and dug into it until now it’s become a sort of bowllike indentation. Clever birdies, this pair!
I’m thinking LP was tired of plopping out eggs, and BP got restless and made LP jealous by flirting around. LP finally said “fine! More eggs! They’re my reproductive organs, what do you care?!?”
Married, are you? 