We Have Pigeon Eggs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Well, that was not too painful. All done. Since the parents don’t stay here as much, especially at night, there wasn’t too terribly much shit to clean up and what there was, was localized. Once the squabs start running around, that will change.

And that will be soon, because both of the squabs hopped out of the box while we were cleaning the balcony, ages 22 and 23 days. Moving the box over to the other side of the balcony seemed to freak them out a little, and I’m not sure if Mickey hopped out or fell out in a panic. He walked around for a few seconds and then was able to hop easily back into the box. But later he definitely hopped out on his own initiative, and Holly followed big brother. They were still out when I moved the box back, so I picked them up and put them back in, as I was a little worried they might not understand where the box was. They’ve not hopped out again yet, so I think today’s development was due to the special circumstances. Big Pidgee’s out there now, and the squabs are squealing for him but not hopping out.

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How about a contest, your choice, as to picking the names for the next batch of squabs?

Pleeeeeaaaaaase?

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Hmmm. I dunno. I’m afraid people will be put out if I don’t pick theirs. But maybe. What did you have in mind?

Monday morning, and 24-day-old Mickey left the box under normal circumstances this morning. Went after his father, who was trying to entice him out. Returned to the box shortly, though, and Holly, who is 23 days old tday, has not left it since that one time yesterday. They clearly don’t want to leave, squealing and flapping their wings for their father to come to them. He’s not mean, he does feed them eventually, but he tries to entice them out.

Not seen Little Pidgee for a couple of days, and the torrid sex has come to an end. I wonder if she’s building a nest somewhere else? Big Pidgee slept here agin last night. The squabs seem to know nighttime is not for feeding; they never squeal to be fed after dark, no matter how close a parent is.

Did not upload photos last night. We watched the final four episodes of season 2 of 24 on the wife’s laptop computer. Friends loaned us the first six seasons on DVD at New Year’s, and we’ve been slowly making our way through. Will try to start uploading tonight. I seem to have taken almost 100 shots since last time I uploaded them! I have some, too, of a small bird that came and hung out on the balcony for almost a full hour yesterday. Cute little guy. Don’t know what kind it is. Small. I wondered what would happen if Big Pidgee showed up while this guy was here, but he didn’t appear.

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Okay, new pidgee photos! Mickey and Holly are 26 and 25 days old today (Wednesday). This pair looks more alike than any other batch we’ve had. It doesn’t always come out in the pictures, but Mickey is a slightly darker shade of gray than Holly. At this moment, too, Holly still has just a bit of yellow baby fuzz sticking out the back of her head. But there are times we can’t easily tell which is which, unless they’re standing, because Holly has the same “socky feet” that a couple of previous squabs had. Neither Big nor Little Pidgee has that; I wonder if one of their parents did.

But the photos. (Please excuse the shit. They lay it down as fast as we can clean it up):

Thursday, March 12
Here and here, we see Holly and Mickey aged 12 and 13 days, respectively. In that second one especially, Mickey’s earhole is rather prominent.

Friday, March 13
A day older here.

Saturday, March 14
And one more day here. Both squabs are now a full two weeks old; 14 and 15 days, to be exact.

Sunday, March 15
15 and 16 days old now. Here we see Mickey wondering what I’m doing. Note the very light area on back toward Holly’s tail; that area turned noticeably lighter than the corresponding one on Mickey. You can see it here well, too, while Mickey especially looks all “tumored up.”

We moved the box over to the other side of the balcony to clean their area, and I took this close-up; that’s Holly in front, trying to look threatening. and a different angle here.

And now I get into the picture. Here and here, I have Holly in my clutches. And here I am with Mickey; you can see Holly down in the corner.

Monday, March 16
A day older here.

Tuesday, March 17
17 and 18 days old here.

Wednesday, March 18
And another day older here.

Saturday, March 21
Skip ahead three days, and here we start seeing a noticeable reduction in baby fuzz on the head. They’re starting to look like real little pigeons now; note Holly’s socky foot there on the left. And here we see a very curious Holly; Mickey’s earhole is still prominent.

Sunday, March 22
Here they’re 22 and 23 days old. Note that little bit of baby fuzz still sticking straight out of the back of Holly’s head. More and more they’re assuming their adult form.

Monday, March 23
24 and 23 days old here; you can tell Mickey’s darker shade in this one.

I like this one: Father Big Pidgee taking a drink of water. Ours are the only pigeons in the neighborhood with their own private water supply. :smiley:

Another one of the squabs, who are really looking like little pigeons now. Here, too, and long.

And getting down to business: Here and here, we see the squabs swarmping Dad with their demands to be fed. He usually gets so swarmed upon that he must jump out of the box and look for another way back in.

Afterward, he’s trying to coax the squabs out of the box here and here.

And of course, you can see all of these and earlier photos for this batch on one page here.

Little Pidgee rarely stops by now. It seems to be Big Pidgee doing all of the parenting at this point, and he’s taken to sleeping here again after staying elsewhere for a few nights. The wife did see Little Pidgee stop by late Monday afternoon while I was away, but Mom appeared only to be looking for Big Pidgee. Left shortly after, ignoring the squabs, who themselves did not get excited upon seeing her. Seems to be like that with every batch: Little Pidgee drops them after a week or 10 days, while Big Pidgee is always clearly the preferred parent. I wonder if that’s just normal, with Little Pidgee’s role mainly to produce.

Dad was clearly trying to coax the squabs out of the flower box. Walking around and even cooing at them. And they are hopping out of the box more now, although not for long; they clearly prefer the safety of home, which is that one end of the box where the nest is, or used to be, as it’s prretty much all been trampled down now.

And speaking of nests, it’s a bit peculiar that no new nest-building has been going on here, especially with all of that hot sex going on a couple of weeks ago. I’m wondering if they’ve picked another spot again, assuming they did lay eggs elsewhere before, around New Year’s.

I have photos, too, of that little bird that came visiting on Sunday but will post those separately later.

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Thursday morning, and the squabs are 26 and 27 days old. Little Pidgee has all but disappeared again, but Big Pidgee hangs around a lot in the mornings and evenings, staying at night now. Although they still prefer the flower box, Mickey and Holly are starting to leave it more now and will chase after Dad to be fed. Yesterday, Big Pidgee seemed to be trying to coax them into flying, cooing at them from over on the window frames. It is fascinating to watch how he tries to teach his children.

And Mickey discovered the water dish today. Immediately took a bath, doing the synchronized swimming bit, on one side with one wing extended vertically into the air. Then he just lounged in it soaking for a while. I also saw one of them do a short flight from the “living room” tree pot back to the box, but it happened so fast I’m not sure which one it was. Holly’s been flapping her wings and lifting of vertically an inch or so from the floor.

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I was thinking of George and Gracie, actually!:smiley:

I really liked the second photo of the kids bothering Dad to be fed. The camera shot really shows the spread of the feathers in great detail.

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I ran it by the wife, and she’s agreed to George and Gracie for the next batch. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, Little Pidgee’s done another runner, and there’s been no new nest-building. But she’s always reappered eventually, so hold tight.

Friday morning, and Mickey is 4 weeks old. That’s a full month, since he hatched in February. Holly is 27 days. They’re running all over the balcony now, checking everything out with curiosity. The world has suddenly expanded for them. They’re even jumping up on the green concrete verge. Won’t hold still for a photo.

Big Pidgee has been hanging out on the window frames cooing, trying to coax them into flying. And this morning, a pigeon landed outside our bedroon window that bore a strong resemblance to Katie, but a little too white. But it had the same socky feet and mask; I wonder if the feathers lightened up later. Or maybe this was one from the “missing batch” around New Year’s. Even had Big Pidgee’s squared “box” shape.

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Well, speak of the devil. Little Pidgee just made an appearance. But I inadvertently scared her away. She’s always so skittish!

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I don’t care if it is a contest or whatever*, but I have some suggestions:

Lucy/Ricky
Fred/Ethel
Fred/Wilma
Barney/Betty
Ralph/Alice
Ed/Trixie

more recent:

William/Laura (Battlestar Galactica)
Crab Man (Darnell)/Joy (My Name is Earl)
Jim/Pam (The Office)
Jack/Kate Sawyer/Kate Jack/Juliet Sawyer/Juliet (Lost - gotta have a program to keep up with these folks :D)

I’ll give everyone else a chance…

*You could put whatever you like in a hat and pick 'em at random.

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Mork and Mindy?

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Said on 5/16/2008

I’m glad you came around.

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Actually, I’ve never seen those three shows. Well, I did see Battlestar Galactica, but in the 1970s. And I’ve seen The Office, but only the British version; I’m going to guess that Jim and Pam on the American series correlate to Tim and Dawn in the British one. But I think after George and Gracie, we’re going to go with Bob and Susie. After that, we’ll see.

That is, if there are more. Still no new nest building, and Little Pidgee has made only two brief appearances this whole week. :frowning:

Saturday morning, and now Holly is a full four weeks/one month old. Mickey is 29 days. They like getting up on the concrete verge now. Hope they can fly in case they fall off! In one of the previous batches, I think that is how one discovered he could fly.

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Sunday morning, and the squabs are 29 and 30 days old. Last night, they slept outside the flower box for the first time, up on the green concrete verge. Big Pidgee slept just above them on the bottom rail. Hope he didn’t shit on his kids!

Today they’re running all over the place. They’ve been practicing little short hop flights across the balcony, and Mickey actually flew up to the top rail! And back down. They’ll sit on the concrete verge looking out at the world in wonder. Mickey also likes soaking in the water dish, while Holly doesn’t seem to care about it. Little pidgee is coming around more often but only briefly. Big Pidgee is still the one doing most of the coaxing; he spends a lot of time with them. A good father.

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Monday morning, and the squabs are gone! :eek:

When the wife got up this morning, she saw them in the dining-area window. That marks their first known flight from the balcony, aged 30 and 31 days. When I got up, they were nowhere to be seen. But Big Pidgee was here, cooing, apparently trying to call them. Seemed sad. He hung around most of the morning. However, I did finally catch a glimpse of one on the balcony below us! I don’t know which one it was, but it was one of them.

If by chance they don’t return here, this will be the youngest they’ve left. I wonder if this is because of my handling them. For the past couple of days, they’ve generally shunned the flower box to hide behind the tree pots. Maybe they thought they were hiden from us. Sometimes they’d stare wistfully out at the world. Again last night, they slept on the concrete verge, beneath Big Pidgee.

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I sure hope Little Pidgee comes home. I want to see a sixth batch!

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The squabs returned home to sleep last night! :smiley:

Tuesday morning now, and Mickey and Holly are 32 and 31 days old. I was away in the evening yesterday, but the wife said they returned just before dark. Big Pidgee had been here and was cooing. She said when they showed up, he was real sweet to them, preening their heads and stuff. They went to the concrete verge, their new home, right away and fell sleep. Must have been a big day.

And they’re gone again this morning, but I saw the entire family over on the window frames earlier, Little Pidgee included. I even saw one I’m sure was Katie, but Big Pidgee chased her away. Guess it’s really time for her to have her own life. He’ll do the same with this batch some day.

And we saw Marty on Sunday during the balcony cleaning. He was over on the window frames next to Little Pidgee, looking like a little version of her. The squabs had not flown away then, and one time when I was picking one up, she came flying close, flapping her wings at me, then flew away. Looked like she was trying to scare me away from the kids. She’d done that before. Brave little girl! But she’s still sleeping elsewhere at night, unlike Big Pidgee, who is back here nightly now.

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Tuesday night, pushing midnight, and I’m having my traditional end-of-month beer. Singha brand. Ahhh.

The wife tells me the squabs were attacked today! Apparently by Marty from the last batch! :eek: Over on the window frames. What looked like Marty showed up, started pacing back and forth on a window frame like Big Pidgee does when he’s riled by a strange pigeon coming near, then moved to the squabs’ window frame and started pecking away at them. The squabs started squealing, not knowing what the hell was going on. They’d just been minding their own business. Finally escaped to the balcony below us. Marty flew away. Poor little guys. It’s a cruel world. :frowning:

I wonder what set Marty off, assuming that was him. Jealousy that they’re getting all of the attention fron Dad now? Big Pidgee wasn’t around then to protect the squabs.

There’s an odd bump on top of Holly’s head. I first noticed it on Sunday. It sort of pushes the feathers up. The little spiriy house we keep balanced between the two tree pots had been knocked down that day by one of them, and I wondered if maybe it had bonked her on the head. Doesn’t seem to hurt if I touch it. And both Holly and Mickey have their earholes still partially uncovered, which is strange at this point. Hope they’re okay, but they don’t seem sick.

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Wednesday morning, and the squabs are now 33 and 32 days old. When I opened the curtains, they were both snuggled together soaking in the water dish. Just lounging around. Stayed in for a long time. Got some pics.

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Friday morning. Mickey and Holly stayed away for the first time on Wedneday night, but slept here agin last night. Over on the verge underneath Big Pidgee. No more box for them. Woke up this morning and found Big Pidgee cooing on the balcony, maybe calling them. The squabs are here now, wandering around the balcony. Holly still has that bump on her head, plus two esposed areas near her ears. Look like white dots. Almost like bone is exposed! I can’t inspect them anymore, they can get away, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. They’re 35 and 34 days old now.

Mickey from the previous batch, the one who attacked the squabs before, was here yesterday while everyone else was gone. He was looking around in the flower box. Remembering old times, I guess. I thought at first it was Little Pidgee come to build another nest, but no. He looks a lot like her, though.

And speaking of Little Pidgee and nests, nothing’s happening on that front. The wild pigeon sex ended weeks ago, so I’m wondering yet again if she’s laid eggs somewhere else. Maybe they’ve begun alternating sites?

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Wednesday morning, and Mickey and Holly are 40 and 39 days old. That bump on Holly’s head is not going away, and she has some sort of protuberance sticking out of both earholes; it actually looks like bone! Mickey has one protuberance sticking out of only his left ear. Neither squab appears bothered by any of this; they jump and fly around healthy as can be. I can no longer catch Holly, so I can’t inspect it further. I did when it first appeared, before she started flying, and it’s definitely a bump and not a ruffled feather or two but did not appear to be painful for her when I touched it.

We’ve now taken to calling Holly “Bumpy Head” regularly. :smiley: The wife expressed concern that she may not be able to find a mate looking like that, but I said not to worry, she’ll just shake her little ass in front of some guy pigeon, and that will be that.

Speaking of mates, Sammy and Katie stopped by this morning. Katie’s about 4-1/2 months old now, but Sammy’s … what? 6 months? Should be about sexually mature now. We often see these two together, so we assume they’ve hooked up. I wonder if there’s any way they can sense they’re mates.

Last night, Mickey slept somewhere else, so it was just Holly and Big Pidgee. The other night, Big Pidgee showed about dusk, only to be warmed by Holly begging for a feeding – Mickey held back – and so he flew off and did not return that night. Holly perched up on the top rail and seeemd to be looking for him.

Very little sign of Little Pidgee. The wife saw her or Marty – not always easy to tell them apart unless they’re together – briefly a day or two ago. She must have laid eggs somewhere else.

Will post new photos soon, and you can see the bump and protuberances for yourself.