We Have Pigeon Eggs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Three never-before-seen pidgees appeared yesterday (Monday), two very young ones and an older male, BIG, and very beautiful. Rather silvery. Didn’t seem very afraid of me either.

Of the two young ones, one looked like a cross between Joey and Moe. Very small and seemed to be curious about everything. So small – the head was so tiny – that I looked closely for signs of yellow baby fuzz but dould detect none. I now tend to think the wife is correct about Joey and Moe belonging to the Pretty One and Scruffy, and this Joey/Moe hybrid may be theirs, too. The other one was a definite Henry offspring, very white, with a few black streaks on its back and black polka dots all around its head. Unfortunately, I had my hands full at the time and was unable to get a picture of any of them.

Little Susie has apparently left. I don’t think we’ve seen her for two whole weeks now. Occasionally, when we walk down and out to the street, we’ll see a large flock of pigeons flying continuously in a large circle, over and over, like they’re racing or playing, maybe 20 of them, and we think we’ve spotted Susie among them in the past. So she’s made friends. Probably has found a mate; by our reckoning, she’s probably about six months old now, as she first showed up here right after we returned from Vietnam.

But the new regular white one – not the one that appeared yesterday, but rather the new regular, who appears in that last batch of photos a few posts back (this pidgee), has decided she likes it here. We’ve held off naming her, in case she doesn’t stick around, just calling her Sweetie instead. Now that she’s decided to be a regular, the name Sweetie has stuck. We think she’s a girl, very feminine-looking, although one time she pulled some sort of aggressive masculine thing, so maybe she’s a ladyboy? This IS Thailand. :smiley:

I actually touched Joey or Moe yesterday, not sure which one. They both look similar from the back, and this one had his back to me eating. Was so involved in eating that he did not notice me open the door. I bent down and touched him, and he freaked and flew away quickly. Very soft. But Joey’s leg is noticeably better. Still favors the left a bit, but the right leg has improved, whatever was bothering it.

And this morning, for the first time, Maggie jumped up into the window. I was busy changing their water, and she must have figured I was being slow with the food, as when I returned with the water, she was up in the window staring in. Maggie’s showing up full-time again with Henry, but we’re having to cut back some on food again, because, as usual, there are too many coming around. Henry now understands, or seems to, what it means when I close the windows. He and Maggie does get some food though.

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You do realize that this one is “Zoe,” right? :smiley:

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Heh! That’s a possibility. Have not seen that one again though, nor the other two new ones from Monday.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned Big Eyes. A tiny young one that appeared a couple of weeks ago that has, you guessed it, rather large eyes. Everything else about him is small, seems to be a young adult. We think he’s male, as he’s like a little attack pigeon. He’s very aggressive, even against pidgees that are much larger than he is, and we’re trying not to encourage him to hang around. However, he has caught on to the jumping-up-in-the-window bit and does it endlessly. But it’s not working for him, hehehe.

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Well, congratulations. you seem to have named a bird. “Zoe” has begun hanging around, and that’s what we’ve been calling her. Hope it’s a her! :smiley:

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Whoohoo!! Hi to Zoe!

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Update. We’ve been forced into a drastic cutback on feeding, but Henry still gets some when possible. The problem now seems to be some pidgees have figured out Henry’s the key to the food and so follow him everywhere. He has his own cult! We still feed him if there are not too many other outside pidgees around, but sometimes he’ll jump up into the window with virtually an army behind him, and we just have to point to the others, shake our heads no and close the curtains. He actually seems to understand; at least, he knows this means no, as he doesn’t keep jumping up like before.

Susie is definitely gone. Joey has left, also. Moe and Zoe are still here … we think, as there are several new young ones that resemble them. It’s getting difficult to tell which ones are Moe and Zoe and which the others. One I call Spotty, as he carries a white Gorbachev-style blotch on top of his head. And some new grays. All of these are young punks who tend to fight among themselves, visibly annoying Henry.

And a new white one that is obviously Henry’s just appeared in the last few days. Beautiful, just stunning, white with very few black markings, but a similar, albeit more faded, pattern on the very top of the head as Henry has. Not the one we called Sweetie, who has also not been seen for days. This one looks so elegant, we thought it must be a female, but this morning (Wednesday morning), this one puffed out its neck and made some very male-like aggressive moves against others; must be a Thai ladyboy! :smiley:

Maggie has disappeared again also, so we figure she must be tending to some eggs again. Don’t know why she does not come here much in her off hours if that’s true.

Even when we’re not putting out food, we always have fresh water available, and they appreciate that. Some pidgees have taken to lounging down in our tree pots and snoozing for long stretches. We’re very popular with them.

Will try to post new photos soon.

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There’s been a disturbing development. Henry’s been gone a full week now. :frowning:

It’s Thursday morning here, and the last time we saw him was last Thursday. I fed him around noon. I thought he seemed a bit skittish at the time. The wife fed him in the late afternoon. And those are the last times we’ve seen him. We were away last weekend, for just under 48 hours from Saturday noontime until late Monday morning. But even when we spent so much time in Vietnam, Henry still hung around.

Maggie did reappear on Monday, and I was able to give her a good feed with no other pidgees around. But she’s not been back since, and that was her only appearance in a couple of weeks or so. In fact, there seems to be a noticeable drop in the number of pigeons coming around.

I hope Henry’s okay. He’s hung out here for 14 months, his whole adult life, we think. It’s good they’re free to fly around and such, but then you start worrying about what’s happened when they disappear.

Susie’s still gone. Junior reappeared yesterday for the first time in days. Ladyboy and a few others like to lounge around in the mornings, then disappear in the afternoon. I went ahead and fed Ladyboy and Big Eyes today. Another pidgee showed up, then a couple more, but not the large number as before. Ladyboy and Big Eyes got into a fight that I had to break up. He’s aptly named, Ladyboy, because although male, he looks so elegant and feminine.

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It hurts more when the “oldtimers” don’t show up, doesn’t it?

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Yes. I’m wondering if there’s something significant about 14 months. That’s about how long Big Pidgee was here, too. Now Henry. :frowning:

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Good news! Henry showed up! :smiley:

It was yesterday afternoon (Friday afternoon), and I was just shutting the place to head out. Just as I was closing the curtain, Henry flew down from somewhere and landed on the top rail. I thought it was Junior at first, who comes around now about noontime and had been here earlier. But no, it was Henry. I was sort of in a hurry, but I stopped everything and gave him some food. Immediately, he got into a fight with another pigeon, which I broke up quickly before leaving. Don’t know what happened after that, he was on his own. The wife did not see him when she came home later.

So after eight days, Henry showed back up. Odd. Maybe he doesn’t think of this as his place anymore, having grown tired of all these other pidgees that are trying to muscle in? Still no further sign of Maggie since Monday. It could have been my imagination, but Henry seemed thinner. I’m just glad someone didn’t catch him to eat; around here, you never know.

Ladyboy has definitely become a regular now. I’m sure he’s one of Henry’s. Will post photos soon. And a new one has appeared, looks like marble – half white (Henry?) and half dark in a marbled pattern.

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Did not see Henry yesterday (Saturday), but he reappeared this morning, only briefly, but at least we know he’s okay. Fed him … and nine other pidgees who showed up immediately. Then he left. I think he’s just tired of the hassle.

Now Ladyboy, Big Eyes and Max hang out here all morning long each day. Ladyboy is defintely Henry’s; Max, who first showed up just a few days ago and has a marbled design, may be. For some reason, he looks like a Max, so thus his name. Max has fallen in love with the flower box and generally refuses to leave it, sitting either inside it or, like he is right now while staring at me, perched on the edge. We’ll slip those a little food if no others are around.

I even had to chase away the Evil Gray, who decided to try and fight Max for occupancy of the box. Max put up a valiant fight until reinforcements (me) arrived.

Photos in the not-too-distant future.

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Henry is now coming around more regularly again, often with Maggie. Not sure what that eight-day absence was all about.

But we’re worried about Junior. On Wednesday, he seemed sick. He was perfectly fine even the day before, but on that day he was listless, sort of drooping and had a hard time keeping his eyes open. Was breathing heavily. And seemed to have no interest in food, which is very unusual for him. When I opened the balcony door, he flew over to the window frames, where he continued acting sick. That’s the last we’ve seen him, and it’s Friday here now.

Poor little guy, maybe only eight months old by our reckoning. No other pidgees are showing any signs of illness at all, and he does not look like he was attacked; with his white color, I’d think that would be obvious. Maybe he ate something poisonous?

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Still no sign of Junior, and it’s been nine days now. Very strange. A healthy pidgee 10 days ago, sick and listless nine days ago. And not one other “regular” seems affected. People on the pigeon board suggest it may have been canker.

Meanwhile, not much else happening. I think I did catch sight one time, and only once, of a new Henry/Maggie offspring. Looked like Maggie but with a reddish moustache like Henry’s. Henry’s moustache has always had a light-red tint, but this pidgee’s was more pronounced. Was here with Maggie, so I’m sure it was not her. It flew away frightened the first time it saw me and has never returned. Otherwise, we’ve still cut back on feeding. Man, this birdseed must be like crack cocaine, as there will be an army of nine or 10 pidgees all sitting out there staring intently at the curtains in the morning, waiting for us to open up and feed them. Will feed Henry and Maggie if not too many others around, but afternoons are best, as the others usually give up by that time and go hunting.

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It’s been almost three weeks now since we last saw Junior, that day he was visibly ill. Whatever happened to him came no sudenly. Poor little guy. It’s not bird flu. The US Centers for Disease Control say pigeons don’t carry bird flu, and anyway the last reported case in Thailand was in January 2007.

Something may have happened to Scruffy, too. One of the two we call the Pretty One has Scruffy for a mate, and they sometimes even mate on the balcony. Unlike Henry and Maggie, who are only seen together some of the time, this Pretty One and scruffy were almost always together. Almost always. But we’ve not seen Scruffy for a week or so, and the Pretty One hangs out on the balcony all day long, staring out like he’s looking for her. Maybe he’s waiting for her to show up? Sad. We try not to feed this one, as he’s very mean to Henry and Maggie both and others. Seems a little heart-broken now. But not ill.

Otherwise, business as usual. Henry and Maggie get fed mostly in the later afternoon if one of us are here, as too many others hang around in the morning, maybe 5-7 or even more. Like a little community center. We always leave water out. And there’s been a noticeable change in the seasons since last Friday. The rains have ended suddenly, and we’ve entered the so-called cool season. There are some relatively cool breezes in the mornings, and the pidgees all fluff their feathers out against them. May have even seen one new one, another Moe and Max marble-patterned one, possibly belonging to Henry and Maggie.

Will try to get those photos up soon.

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I think I may be joining the club soon…

For a few weeks now I’ve noticed a pigeon milling about the balcony, cooing, flapping around and crapping all over the place, you know, the usual pigeon stuff.

Last evening I was working on a new model plane, I had to cut some wing templates out of MDF, and since that makes an awful mess I went out to the balcony to do it there. There’s an old rack there, about a meter or meter twenty high, with a few old things on the bottom and two cardboard boxes on top, one with… I can’t even remember what’s rotting in there, about 30 centimeters high and 40 centimeters square on the base, on top of that and Og knows why laying at 45 degrees against the wall there’s a computer monitor box that I’ve been meaning to throw away for some time. This leaves a small empty area on the top of the rack so I set down the MDF board on in, clamped it down and started to cut it with a jigsaw.
Now keep in mind that the rack is a cheap plastic and press board thing that shakes and sways if you even look at it funny, so it was really rocking with the sawing, plus the noise and the dust… So, about half an hour into the job I noticed some twigs sticking out of the triangular hole between the two cardboard boxes I mentioned previously. “How on Earth did that get there?” I though, I look around and I see a rather shoddily constructed nest with lady pigeon on it. The bird gave me a look of abnegation the likes of which only a mother can muster, as if to say, “my idiot husband couldn’t have picked a worse place for the nest, could he?”
The bird didn’t flinch or try to go away, just sat there looking coy.
I was a bit embarrassed to disturb the bird and it’s eggs (I suppose it’s incubating), so I moved somewhere else on the balcony to finish cutting the templates.

Now I have a nesting pigeon just right out of the window, I could open the curtain and have a perfect view of it while I sit on the sofa less than a meter away. I never completely open the curtain so that’s why I didn’t notice it before.
I’ll see if I can take a picture when I go back home.

So, how long until the eggs hatch?

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Uh. Were you shaking the nest itself?

Because I know one of the things they do to control the breeding of some seagulls is send people out to shake the eggs. See, if you remove eggs the birds just lay more, but if you give them a good shake the chicks don’t develop and momma just keeps sitting on dud eggs.

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What level of shaking are we talking about here? I think I’m responsible for a 6.0, 6.4 tops on the Richter scale. I would assume that the seagull birth control squad was actually picking up the eggs and shaking them into prepackaged omelette, no?

I checked the bird some minutes ago and it’s sleeping peacefully. Is it really necessary to give it a name? I’m really terrible naming things, I had a goldfish for 6 years and I never came up with a name for it.

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That I don’t know. Anyway, you’ll know for sure within 17-18 days. :wink:

What’s wrong with “Richter”? :cool:

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A goldfish named Richter? preposterous! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Welcome to the club! :smiley:

Yes, 17-18 days is the incubation period. And of course, no telling how long they were there before you found them. Have you seen both parents yet? It’s usually the male on the eggs in the daytime, then Mama takes over in late afternoon for the coming night shift.

Even if you don’t want to feed them – we pick up CP-brand dove food at Siam Paragon, and they love that – I’d put some water out for them.

Hope the eggs hatch. You’ll find out why the squabs are often called “squealers,” hehehe.