Thanks for the update and pics!
And no sooner had I written that the parents were not spending much time here anymore than Big Pidgee came by yesterday and tried to entice George out of the box. Then he spent the night on the rail last night. Then back again for a while this morning after going out for breakfast. I guess his parenting instinct kicked in. He’s done this before with the previous squabs. Will stand a little ways away and coo at the squabs. They’ll squeal and flap their wings to be fed, but he is clearly trying to persuade them to come out. George is 22 days old today (Monday), and he’s been stretching his head over the box to look out at the balcony floor.
Thursday morning, and George is 25 days old. Stands a lot and walks inside the flower box but has not jumped out on his own accord. It’s usually about this time, I think. His yellow squab fuzz is just about completely gone, and he has a very sweet face; makes me think maybe this is Gracie after all and not George!
Does not like to be touched, but he’s super soft now, so I cannot help myself. Funny how in their first few days, they seem to think you’re something that’s come to feed them, then their instincts kick in.
Big Pidgee chooses to stay here every night now and during the day will often try to entice George out of the box. Fascinating to watch. Litle Pidgee’s not been seen for a week now. She may have come around when we weren’t looking, but this has become a familiar pattern.
I saw something of interest from the bird world today. An adult starling would fly up to a bird feeder (filled with cracked corn (maize), I believe), then drop down to feed three youngsters on the ground. Why would he/she need or continue to feed them if they are capable of flight?
I’ll be watching to see if it happens again.
Saturday morning, and George is 27 days old. Yesterday, at age 26 days, he hopped out and went walkabout! Just a little. Checked out the area near the flower box and hopped back in. While I was away later, the wife said he hopped out to run after Big Pidgee when he arrived. One thing about not having a sibling, George has no competition for being fed, and father is not swamped as forcefully as he is with two squabs.
The wife said Little Pidgee stopped by for water, the first sighting of her in 8 days. George just stared at her from the box. It’s Big Pidgee he gets excited for. Dad’s been the favorite with every batch.
Big Pidgee stayed elsewhere last night. We’re wondering if that’s because he’s seen George get out of the box now. He seemed to be hanging around mostly to coax him out of the box. Maybe that was his motivation for staying here, too.
More photos soon.
Yep. Although Daddy seemed to feed them a bit, he definitely wanted the kids to figure it out for themselves. And they did - they were flying up to the feeder.
Must have been showing them where the food was.
Could be instinct too. Sometimes the fledglings fall out of the nest just a bit before they’re ready to fly well, and the parents will feed them on the ground and try their best to chase predators away.
New Photos! 
Wednesday, May 27
George is 17 days old. Still a lot of yellow baby fuzz here. And catching a snooze.
Thursday, May 28
Looking right atcha at age 18 days.
Friday, May 29
19 days old. The baby fuzz is getting thinner here, and George is looking like a real little pigeon. Here is his other side.
Saturday, May 30
George is 20 days old now and is outgrowing my hand. We were cleaning the balcony a little, and here he is taking another nap after his big adventure. (He loves to sleep. :D)
Sunday, May 31
And George is a full 3 weeks old here. His baby fuzz is fast disappearing.
Monday, June 1
22 days old now. This one is early in the morning. And a right profile. And a side shot.
Tuesday, June 2
George is 23 days old, and here you can see his baby fuzz is just about gone. And a back view; notice the different shades as you get toward the tail.
Wednesday, June 3
Age 24 days.
Thursday, June 4
25 days, and here he is showing off his standing skills. His baby fuzz is gone now except for maybe the odd strand or two, and he looks like a pigeon. But whenever Dad comes around, you can see how small he really still is. And snoozing again.
Friday, June 5
26 days old, and speaking of dad, he and George are doing some synchronized lounging here. And a top view shows what a pretty little bird George is becoming. This is the day he hopped out of the box on his own, but I did not get a shot of that momentous occasion.
Saturday, June 6
27 days old, and here George is outside the flower box. He’s re-creating the Normandy landing in honor of D-Day.
And again, you can see these and all of George’s other photos on this page. Click on any one to enlarge it.
Yesterday (Sunday), we did a big balcony cleaning, and George flew over to the window frames. He seemed impressed with his newfound power and spent much of the rest of the afternoon flying back and forth between our balcony and our dining-area window. Big Pidgee showed up, and George followed him over to the window frame. Dad gave George a nice little head-and-neck massage; it really looked like he was rewarding George, giving him some positive reinforcement. Photos of all of this will bein the next round.
George has still not discovered the water yet, though. He walks past it, and once or twice while doing “helicopters,” his wing dipped into it briefly.
Big Pidgee hangs around a lot more again. Out there now and has only missed I think one night in the past week sleeping here. He’s taking an active interest in George. Little Pidgee, on the other hand, we rarely see now.
One of my dogs must’ve found a wild turkey’s nest. They brought me an egg, carefully setting it down on the floor next to the chair at my computer desk. It’s a good bit bigger than a large chicken egg, tan with brown speckles. I found another egg in the front yard. Whichever dog it is has a very soft mouth, because the eggs were intact.
StG
I wonder if they’ll hatch. Keep them warm and see what happens.
Way back in junior high or high school, a buddy and I did just that with what looked like a duck egg we found. It didn’t hatch, though.
Thursday morning, and George is 32 days old. Last night, at age 31 days – a full month – he slept away from home for the first time. 
He and Big Pidgee both.
But they were both around this morning. And George has discovered water. The wife saw him drinking a couple of days ago. This morning when I got up, the water bowl was half empty, and water was splashed around everywhere. George and Dad were over on the window frames, and George’s feathers were all kerfuffled. I think he’d just had a bath. The wife saw the aftermath of a bath yesterday, too, but not the actual event.
Without looking back through the thread, this seems a tad early for George to leave. Perhaps it has to do with no sibling to anchor him here a bit longer? And Big Pidgee seems to be taking more of an interest in George than in most of the squabs. He’s always acted like a good father, but he seems to be going the extra mile with George.
Saturday morning here, George is 34 days old now, and he’s been back here the last couple of nights. Just spent the one night away. Big Pidgee was back last night, too, and the two of them slept side by side on the lower rail near the flower box.
Dad really is taking a big, big interest in George. I’ve started to wonder … since Little Pidgee has disappeared again (she was here briefly one time midweek) … if maybe George IS Gracie, and … Dad wants her for a girlfriend. :eek:
I don’t wanna know!
But I can’t wait for the next chapter. Better keep an eye on the “designated sex area”! What if Little Pidgee came back and there was a fight?
Monday morning, and George is 36 days old. He spends more and more time away in the day, and we expect he’ll be gone before long. He still sleeps here at night, though, fitting snugly beteween the concrete verge and bottom rail, the same as previous squabs.
Yesterday, at age 5 weeks, he returned in late evening. Then Big Pidgee showed up. Dad strode straight for the water dish, but George ambushed him and demanded to be fed. George simply would NOT let Dad get a drink of water. Kept chasing him all over the balcony squealing. But George himself stopped and took a drink a couple of times before resuming his harangue of Big Pidgee, who finally gave up and flew away. He stayed somewhere else last night.
Will post some final pictures in the near futurre. After George moves out for good, it will be time to change the flower box again. We did see Little Pidgee briefly again recently, and Big Pidgee really likes our place, so hopefully there will be more eggs.
We had a new visitor these past couple of days, too. A pigeon we’d not seen before. Its coloring was a little dark, pretty sure not yet an adult, although the feet were already pink. Stopped by a couple of times yesterday for water while Big Pidgee was away. When it saw the wife watching, it panicked. Ran back and forth like in cartoons, then flew away. If Big Pidgee catches it here, he’ll move it along.
Friday morning, and George is 40 days old. He doesn’t hang around a lot anymore, but I did inadvertently scare him this morning when I opened the curtains to the balcony. Has not stayed here at night since Monday night, nor has Big Pidgee, but they do still stop by together.
Yesterday, the wife saw Big Pidgee hop inside the flower box and check it out, so maybe that’s a good sign of more to come. We have a new flower box ready to switch with the old one but need more dirt.
Just wanted to pop in and let you know that I’m still following your updates, and really appreciate you keeping them up. Can’t wait for pictures!
Since Little Pidgee hasn’t been around, do you think Big Pidgee will bring in a new SO?
She’s done a runner before and always returned. I suspect she’ll be back. Hope so!
Popping in again to tell you how much fun this thread has been. You’ve inspired me, sort of - there’s a smallish tree (flowering cherry) in our front yard. A week or so ago I noticed some trailing strands of straw or whatever from where the branches start, so I went closer to investigate and got a very dirty look from a bird sitting on a perfectly-formed nest. The bird flew away and I backed off. The nest is perhaps 4 feet off the ground.
A day or two later, I glanced over and saw no bird, so I looked closer, and 4 perfectly-formed blue eggs (I thought the bird was a robin but didn’t want to get close enough the first time to be sure).
Today, I looked and there were several tiny baby birds. No heads up looking for handouts or anything. I imagine they just hatched in the last day or so.
No signs of eggs below the tree - do they try to hide the broken eggshells to discourage curious predators? No evidence of them in the nest either, though obviously I didn’t get terribly close. I’ll see if I can get photos in the next day or so.