It’s also more difficult in a situation like this when you’ve essentially taken over the parent role and the little thing is depending on you for survival. It stirs up a lot of deep emotions quickly. We’ve lost baby animals the same way - - I specifically remember a baby squirrel whose mother was killed. I fed the little guy, kept him warm, did everything I could, but he just was too young and there was no saving him. He perked up initially, so I got my hopes up, but then went down quickly. Same thing with a baby goat - -the mother was ignoring it. And yes, I knew it could very well be that something was wrong with it. But she looked fine, acted fine and the mother just wouldn’t let her nurse. She’d push her away and let the other kid in.
We brought her in the house and I got the special formula and bottle fed her and kept her warm and for awhile she started doing really well. Then one afternoon, she just went downhill. I tried long into the night and just held her to keep her warm and to let her know she was loved and not alone. She died on my chest. I’ll never forget the poor little thing.
Thank you for this thread. I’ve been following it from the beginning, and it’s the only thread I cared enough about in all my years here to set up an email subscription for. Didn’t want to miss any of the adventures.
I’m so sorry. I feel such loss at the end of the saga, it doesn’t surprise me at all that you and your wife are hit so hard. Best wishes to the both of you, and remember that eventually what will remain with you are the happy memories of this unique time of your lives.
Thank you, everyone, for your kind comments, especially since I’m feeling like a right bastard. If it was overfeeding, then I’m the one who overfed him. That especially hurts since he became so seemingly glad to see me the last day or two and would even fall asleep in my hand. Poor little Bob never had a chance.
We had 7 clutches of eggs, but in these last 2 clutches only one egg hatched, so that makes 12 squabs in all, 11 of whom survived to make it out into the world.
I wish Little Pidgee’s maternal instinct had been stronger, but I do try not to blame her too much. The mating instinct was simply stronger. We have good memories of her, and she is a beautiful bird. But having the Stranger around, especially if he really is Marty, is a bit too much for me and the wife, so sadly we must encourage them to go elsewhere. That may not be too hard, as someone on the Pigeon Talk board mentioned he thought it was the male who decided where to nest. We think this must be true, because it was always Big Pidgee who defended the territory and seemed to like this place better than his mate did. And remember, Big Pidgee fought that battle royale with his grown “daughter,” Katie (guess we called the sex on that one wrong), for living rights, until we chased Katie away. The Stranger is not used to our balcony and hopefully will choose to nest elsewhere.
But we’re open to new pigeons and who knows? Maybe we’ll stick a flower box out there again in a few months to see what develops.
Damn, but these pigeons can really get under your skin.
We’ve been trying to encourage the Stranger and Little Pidgee to nest elsewhere. Besides being mean to Bob, the Stranger may be the same pigeon that attacked little Holly (aka Bumpy Head) and Mickey of the fifth batch over on the window frames when they were first learning to fly. Made them squeal like girls. The wife thinks that’s him anyway. The stranger is BIG, maybe bigger than Big Pidgee was. We think of him as a gangster pigeon, kind of a bully.
So even with no flower box, food or water out there, they’ve still been stopping by to have sex! Then yesterday (Tuesday) Little Pidgee stops by alone. Stays out there for almost an hour, mostly just sitting in the “living room,” which is that one potted tree. She looks so cute! Is she remembering her past life here? Does she still remember Big Pidgee? Does she miss him? So okay, I can’t stand it, and I’ve put water out for her again, since the Stranger’s not with her. But no flower box for now; we really want them to lay their eggs somewhere else.
The wife is still not happy with the way Mama abandoned poor little Bob, but she’s so cute! And I guess she was just going with instinct. But the Stranger is a thug, and we do not like him.
The last couple of days, Little Pidgee has showed up alone at the noon hour and hung around for an hour or more, mostly in the “living room.” Drinks water. The wife tells me someone small who looks like George came by late yesterday afternoon (Wednesday afternoon); he’d be three months old now. She said the Stranger stopped by alone, too, but she chased him away.
Most interestingly, a beautiful white pigeon with black speckles, dubbed the Dalmatian, that we’ve seen in the neighborhood hung around on our balcony for 45 minutes yesterday. Then this morning, it was cooing out there, like Big Pidgee used to do, so we think maybe it’s a male. Do only males coo like that? Like they’re calling for a mate maybe? A little small, but not too small; could be male or female. Left and came back later in the morning. We’re wondering if we could hook him up with Little Pidgee. Seems to be testing the place out. We’re keeping a flower box on standby just in case.
We’d give anything to know whatever finally happened to Big Pidgee. The wife’s sister speculates he may have been getting old and thus slower, and so could not get away from a cat or something in time. She wonders if the recent unfertilized eggs were a sign of his age.
Whoa! The Dalmatian was just fighting with another pigeon out on the balcony! Looked like Little Pidgee, but it could not be her. They were moving too much to see, but it seemed smaller than the Stranger. Maybe George??
But I opened the door to break up the fight, and they both flew away. Still could not see who the other pigeon might be.
So I guess the Dalmatian is a male, and he likes our balcony.
Little Pidgee returned during the noon hour for a third day in a row yesterday (Thursday), but the Dalmatian showed up shortly afterward and scared her away. Actually, I’m not sure if he scared her away intentionally or he was making amorous moves on her. Either way, she fled. Pity. The wife said maybe this was her quiet place, a place to get away from that bully, the Stranger, and think about happier times here with Big Pidgee.
Someone on the Pigeon Talk website told me it was common for the mother to abandon the babies if something happened to the father early on. The father does most if not all of the feeding after a couple of weeks, and it’s just too much for the mother. Still, it’s odd how she could ignore him so completely when he was right under her nose.
Well, Siam Sam, you’ll never guess what my girlfriend found on the fire escape outside our bedroom today. She’s decided the mother’s name is Marcy, and Marcy is sitting on two eggs. We have no idea how long Marcy has been nesting there because you’d have to open the screen and stick your head out the window to see her. But I guess we’ll have baby pigeons sooner or later.
Excellent! May I suggest a look at the Pigeon Talk board. (Thanks again to Baker for pointing it out to me.) I’ve found the Wild “Feral” Pigeons forum to be very informative. (The Siam Sam there is myself.) The father will sit on the eggs for the bulk of the day and the mother at night. Those eggs will start hatching 17-19 days after they were laid; longer than that, and an egg is probably unfertilized. They probably won’t hatch on the same day. The squabs will fly away for good between 35 and 40 days after hatching but will do test flights before that. It’s fun to watch them do “helicopters.” You’ll find out soon why squabs are called “squeakers,” hehehe.
As for our pigeon situation, our balcony seems to be a popular place for the birds, and we’re not sure why. Does it get marked in some manner that lets other pigeons know it’s a good place? But it looks like the Dalmation may be considering it his territory for real. A couple of other pigeons stop by, but the Dalmation clearly feels it’s his. We’ve not seen the Stranger for a while and hope he and Little Pidgee have made a new home somewhere. Will post some photos of the Dalmation soon. We have not named him officially yet but will probably call him Henry if he does decide to stick around. This is no doubt because I’m reading The Time Traveler’s Wife now, and Henry is the name of a main character.
The wife is getting over her anger at Little Pidgee and now feels sorry for her whenever she stops by. Wish nothing had happened to Big Pidgee.
Well, the Dalmatian seems to have decided to move on. But Sunday saw a flurry of pidgee activity, with several of the old squabs showing up. Katie seemed willing to fight for the space, like she did before with Big Pidgee. We had thought he (we now know Katie’s a he) had hooked up with Sammy from a different batch, but he showed up with the mate, and then another Sammy-looking bird showed up. So who knows which one was Sammy. Katie prepared to fight the new Sammy until we broke it up, and he also wanted to fight the Stranger, who if he really is Marty then is Katie’s direct sibling. Even little Holly, about 6 months old now, showed up, still with a bumpy head. And 3-month-old George has been sighted. The wife wondered if maybe the pigeons assassinated Big Pidgee to take over our balcony.
But since Sunday, almost nothing. We’re getting a new box and putting it out, to see what develops. Figure the Stranger and Little Pidgee have nested elsewhere by now. If anything does develop, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Meanwhile, will be looking forward to hearling if Marley’s eggs have hatched.
They hadn’t as of last night. I wish we had some more time to observe the pigeons and tell you about how they look, but we’ve been really busy lately. We could have more time with them next week. (They’re also really not in the most convenient viewing spot.)
In the meanwhile, we leave some food on the fire escape Marcie and Bert Howard almost every day. We don’t want to attract pigeons from all over the city, but so far, nobody else has showed up except the nesting couple. We have no idea how long the eggs have been in the flower bed, but I guess they have to hatch in less than two weeks now.
That’s a good idea. Assuming we do get more squabs.
It’s been six days since you found the eggs, so hatching time should be 11-13 days now at the most. Maybe less. I think the father will probably try to fight off any pigeon intruders showing up; the males seem very territorial when it comes to the family nesting place. Not sure how he would react to a mass invasion, though.
Oh, and I would suggest leaving a little water out there, too. We live in a neighborhood of bountiful food sources for a pigeon, but they seem to appreciate the water we leave out.
BTW: Blackie – of the first batch – may have stopped by the other day! Maybe. If it was him, he’d be close to 15 months old now. Have not seen this black pigeon in the neighborhood before. Almost solid black with a little Sammy-type pattern just barely discernible. His black feathers really accentuated his orange eyes. Whether that was him or not, shortly after he arrived, the stranger appeared out of nowhere and looked like he was preparing to fight. In chasing away the Stranger, the other guy left, too. Seems to be Homecoming around here.
