We Have Pigeon Eggs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I am pleased to announce that Little Pidgee laid an egg in the flower box late yesterday afternoon (Monday afternoon). Woo Hoo! :smiley: That will be Mickey, and we expect him to hatch out anywhere from February 26-28. Sister Holly has not been laid yet, but we expect her egg soon. Funny, but they were still having sex just a few hours before Little Pidgee laid Mickey’s egg.

It’s late Tuesday night here, almost 11:30pm. It’s been a busy couple of days for me, and tomorrow will be another busy one. This is the first chance I’ve had to pop in and announce the new egg.

Keep meaning to download and post some photos. Of the “landscaped” depression in the flower box. Of the new nest – they’ve been flying in more twigs, but this structure is not as elaborate as the last one. Took a couple of photos of the egg this morning while Little Pidgee was over on the rail. She came back to protect it from my evil designs when she saw what I was doing. Normally she’s so skittish, the moment you get near the window, she flees, whereas Big Pidgee is more cool about it. But when she has an egg in the box, she won’t budge easily. You can tell she’s nervous, but the brave little mama tries hard to stand her ground.

Oddly, tonight is the first night in a long time that Big Pidgee has slept elsewhere. Little Pidgee’s out there with the egg.

The names Mickey and Holley have been chosen after the Woody Allen and Diane Wist characters in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). This will be the fifth clutch of eggs on our balcony. We are still mystified about what may have happened with what may have been the previous clutch of eggs, if they were laid somewhere else and if so, if something untoward happened to them. But we have another egg here now and almost certainly another one on its way.

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And we have the second egg! :smiley: Little Pidgee laid it on Wednesday. I left home at 8am, and there was only one egg; returning home mid-afternoon, there were two. And no pidgees around! I experienced a brief impulse to hide the eggs, to see what Little Pidgee would do, but nah, I couldn’t do that.

So now little Mickey and Holly are out there incubating. (And yes, despite my previous post above, I do know how to spell Dianne Wiest. I was posting at the end of a very long day … like today!)

It’s a little past midnight here, early Thursday morning now. For the second night, Big Pidgee is sleeping elsewhere. We’re wondering if it’s a seasonal thing, as Big Pidgee began staying here every night at the start of the cool season, and now that the hot season is getting into gear, that may have caused him to change his habits again. Or maybe it’s just a pigeon thing, you don’t stay with the wife when she’s on the eggs (even though he did stay here Monday night, the first night of Mickey’s egg).

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Woo Hoo!! More Pidgees!

I’m still wondering why the hell this makes me so excited. :smiley:

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Oh, and this morning before I left, I changed their water. Little Pidgee was standing between the water dish and the flower box. Now, usually no matter how carefully you try to move, she’s so skittish she runs for the edge of the balcony or even flies away. But this time she hopped into the box to cover and protect the egg. She has a really strong mother instinct and will hold her ground. If we get REAL close, then she’ll flee, but she stays around longer than she would with no egg, looking nervous the whole time. And she’s the one who seems to get tired of the squabs after a week or so!

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New photos! Of the parents and the new eggs. I’ve made a new folder for the new batch.

Here on Sunday, February 1, we see the happy couple reunited in their flower box. That’s Little Pidgee on the left, Big Pidgee on the right.

Here they are again the next day, Monday the 2nd, same order. (Big Pidgee has those speckles on both sides of his head, a “mask,” while Little Pidgee’s head is a more uniform gray.) Little Pidgee’s looking a little sleepy here.

Two days later, Wednesday the 4th, we see Big Pidgee guarding Little Pidgee. He’s resting “at ease,” though, rather than standing at attention like he sometimes does. He’s just lounging on the floor. We could tell Little Pidgee was going to lay eggs soon, as this is how they start acting as the time approaches.

Jump ahead five days to last Monday the 9th, and we see Big Pidgee still guarding Little Pidgee. At ease again. This was taken about 11:30am, and sometime in the next 6 hours is when she finally laid the first egg of the new batch, Mickey. (And these two were still screwing that morning, too! She’d hop out of the box and head for the designated sex area on the other side, returning to the box afterward.)

I really like this one of Little Pidgee, taken the next morning, last Tuesday the 10th, the day after she laid the egg and the day before the next egg. She looks slightly glowing because it’s about 7:30am, and the morning sun, which can be quite strong here, is shining right on her. It especially brings out the pink in her feet. She’s up there taking a break from the egg.

And after taking that shot, I swung the camera around and took this one of little Mickey, incubating away.

And the next day, last Wednesday the 10th, Mickey is finally joined by his sister, Holly. Both are here.

And another shot of the two eggs last Friday the 13th here.

And you can see all of these photos on one page here. Just click on the individual shots.

In those last three photos, you can see the parents have been building up the nest. They’re still bringing in and arranging twigs, too; the nest today (Monday) is already considerably more built up than you see in those.

They’re back to taking shifts again, with mother Little Pidgee staying here at night. It’s the noon hour right now, and Big Pidgee is out there. He sleeps elsewhere at night now, every night.

We cleaned the balcony yesterday (Sunday), and it was quite an adventure for Big Pidgee. He did not flee when we stepped out onto the balcony – or when I moved the box to the other side! He just rode along. And then twice he hopped out to come check out what we were doing. It was not like that one batch of squabs that jumped out to run back to the box, only to stop in comical, puzzled amazement that the box they had just jumped out of was not in its usual place. No, Big Pidgee clearly came to take a look, then went back to the eggs each time. He tried no to get too close – wandered over along the cincrete edge of the balcony – but he was close enough for me to touch, which I did two or three times, my first time ever touching him. But he clearly did not like that, emitting this weird growling noise, so I laid off. Then he rode back in the flower box when I returned it after the cleaning. Little Pidgee had watched the entire proceedings from the window frames, and shortly after we finished, the Switch took place.

Big and Little Pidgee have lived with us for 9 months now. We are still mystified about whether there’s a batch of squabs elsewhere or what could have happpened to any eggs laid elsewhere around New Year’s. We have noticed a pair of pigeons – both a beautiful snowy white with black spots, like a Dalmatian – flying around recently. They look very young, and we suspect they’re siblings. Look a lot alike. But they don’t look at all like Big or Little Pidgee, and they’re not chasing after them for a feeding.

So I guess that’s probably it until towards the end of next week, when we expect the hatchings to begin.

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This is such an amazing journey to go along on. I had no idea pigeons mated for life, like geese. And these two seem like such a happy couple. :slight_smile:

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Fascinting stuff, Sam. Keep it up.

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I LOVE pidgee news!

You are a Great grandfather (X several) of pidgees! YAY!

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Oh, I knew they’d win you over. :stuck_out_tongue:

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You know, I really have to submit this thread to the newsletter of our local Audobon chapter. Pigeons may not be exotic, but this blow by blow, up close and personal observation is unique.

And someday one or both of the pidgees won’t show up, and there will be much mourning and gnashing of teeth.

Then another pair will scope out the balcony.

Pidgee: The Next Generation

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They sure did! They’re like family now.

And a sad day that will be. :frowning: We’ve read that pigeons live 3-5 years in the wild, 15 years or more domesticated. This pair may be somewhere in between. We’re not planning to move anytime soon, so they’ll have a safe haven for some time to come; no predators. But a month ago, when it looked like Little Pidgee was not going to come back, we thought we’d leave the box and water out and see if anyone else did move in. It’s not come to that yet, fortunately.

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It’s Thursday morning over here, and by my reckoning little Mickey should hatch out anytime between now and Saturday. His egg’s been out there for 17 days now. Stay tuned.

Marty from the previous batch has showed up a couple of times this week over on the window frames. About three months old now. We know it’s him, because he looks young, looks like his mother and has those distinctive little feather “socks” running down to his feet.

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I think it’s time for a one-paragraph recap. How many generations are you up to now?

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I think the batch that will be hatching soon is the fifth. Of course all those are kids, not grandkids. But I don’t know how old a pigeon is when it starts reproducing, so maybe Big and Little Pidgee are grandparents by now.

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And we have a squab! :smiley: Little Mickey hatched this morning (Friday morning). Little Pidgee kept him covered up pretty well, but I still got a couple shots of his little yellow butt sticking out from under her. The I got a couple during the Switch; Big Pidgee just met his new son a few minutes ago.

Yes, this is the fifth batch of squabs now, although we still suspect another batch was laid elsewhere around New Year’s. Let’s see, the first pair were Blackie and Snowy. Then came Manny and Tammy; Sammy and Pepper; and Marty and Katie. Now Mickey and the yet-to-hatch Holly.

I believe earlier in this thread it was mentioned pigeons become sexually active at around six months, so Blackie and Snowy may be off procreating with their partners now. And maybe Manny and Tammy. We’re filling the world with pigeons, Bwahahahahaha!

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Saturday morning and day-old Mickey is a wiggly little guy. Mama’s already having a hard time keeping him covered up. He keeps getting fed a lot, too. Holly’s not hatched yet, though. So far, all of the hatchings have been early morning, so we don’t expect to see her until tomorrow, making her two days younger than Mickey, which seems to be a normal pattern.

I’m glad I caught a glance of Holly’s egg. The wife and I will be out most of the day, and I wanted to know for sure if she was here yet or not. I saw a big piece of eggshell this morning and at first thought it must be Holly’s, but no, looks like it was Mickey’s and just got kicked out from under Little Pidgee.

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If I remember correctly, all your pidgee batches have raised both squabs, haven’t they? I monitor a couple of birdcams(peregrine falcons) during the summer, and sometimes they lose a young bird, or an egg doesn’t hatch.

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Yes, so far all of ours have hatched and been healthy little guys.

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Peregrines? I think you need to start a thread…

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And we have Holly! :smiley: Hatched on Saturday after all. We came home last night and saw the extra empty eggshell. But we couldn’t see Holly herself, because Little Pidgee was keeping them covered. It being nighttime, the squabs didn’t seem to be moving around underneath Mama.

But Sunday morning now, and I did catch the briefest glimpse of Holly. Mickey’s wiggling around again; the wife thinks Mickey is more active than any of the the others were. The poor little guys are going to be awfully warm, as it’s the hot season now.