This morning I confirmed that there are two eggs in the nest, neither parent was there though.
I forgot to mention that there’s an old dusty rug on top of the cardboard box, that would make a nice comfy nest… unless you cover it with hard sticks, but then again pigeons are not known for their smarts, are they?
They’re hard-wired to build it with twigs. It’s fascinating to watch them build one. The male flies off and brings back twigs,the female takes them and arranges them neatly.
From my experience, if neither parent is on the eggs, they’re fairly well along. When Big and Little Pidgee were sitting on theirs on our balcony, one would be on them around the clock at first, then I dunno, maybe they got a little tired of it, and they both started going off together for short periods.
If they hatch, you know we’ll want pics, right? 
Any news on the pidgees or eggs?
The eggs haven’t hatched yet.
Yesterday I was working on the balcony and I’m not sure if the pigeons were buzzing me or trying to get to the nest and at the last second changing their minds. After a while one got the courage to land a couple meters away from me and get into the nest.
Just in case you were wondering, and if so, then to ease your mind, the US Centers for Disease Control say pigeons don’t carry bird flu. I don’t have a cite for that at the tip of my fingers but have seen the notice in the past.
Not that there would be much cause for alarm anyway. The last reported case of bird flu in Thailand was in January 2007, almost four years ago. Only 25 cases were ever reported between 2004 and January 2007, and most of those were in 2004. I’m looking at the health figures here on my desk.
We’re getting a little concerned. We figure Junior must be dead, as it’s been a full four weeks now since we saw him acting ill. Then Scruffy disappeared, leaving The Pretty One to hang out here mourning and seeming to wait for her to reappear. A few days ago little Moe seemed a little sluggish, not much, not ill like Junior, but noticeable. Have not seen him since, and it’s been almost a week.
We’re wondering if maybe little Susie didn’t just fly off after all. Maybe she took ill and died. Whatever hit Junior came on suddenly, and we never did see Scruffy ill at all.
The good folks on the pigeon boards have said it could be canker, which can spread easily among feral flocks. Easily treatable but fatal if left untreated. (No, no danger to humans’ health.) They mentioned a drug I could get, a liquid that must be applied inside the bird’s mouth. That means we’ll have to try to catch them; Junior was still healthy enough to fly off if I went too close, but I could probably rig up some sort of trap. If it’s canker, we’ll see some sort of sore back in the throat. It’s spread by an infected bird spitting out a piece of food it can’t swallow and another one grabbing it to eat. Poor little guys. 
Meanwhile, Ladyboy and Big Eyes have decided they like our balcony and hanging out here, but there’s a big gray male we call Evil Gray, because he is an insufferable bully. Even chases Henry away. If we try to feed Henry, we have to watch and keep Evil Gray back. and he knows we don’t like him. If he starts chasing another bird, we’ll point to him threateningly, and he’ll back off, but Henry and Maggie seem to sense we’re on their side, helping them out.
A new young one has appeared that we’re pretty sure is Henry’s. Mostly white. Some black speckles and even brown speckles, but oddly there’s an orange gash across the right wing. I thought it was bleeding the first time I saw it! But no, it’s just the feather color. We’ve named it Som, which is Thai for “orange.” Cute little guy. Stares all around in wonder like the new adults always do.
The eggs haven’t cracked yet, I figure they’ll hatch any day now. I’ve taken holidays this week and plan to just stay in Bangkok so I may get the chance be home when they do.
I took a photo of Sauron yesterday morning.
That’s a pretty bird. The father, I take it.
Whenever our eggs hatched, we just arbitrarily assigned genders to them, male for the first one, female for the second. We’d often find out later we were wrong.
That is one evil-looking bird. Beautiful, though.
The eggs have just hatched, here’s one hatching already out of the shell and another half way out. A few seconds later both birds fully born.
I have to say, they need three or four times more fuzz before becoming cute, the eyes and the beak are kind of creepy.
Yay! I admit I was worried that they would hatch at all after the work you did over the nest! Congratulations to the happy new family!
Oh, come on. You probably didn’t look so good straight from the shell either.
Excellent! Congratulations. Ours always hatched a day or even two apart. Enjoy the yellow fuzz. That will disappear in a few days. They’ll go through a really ugly stage, then become cute little pidgees. The eyes should start to open in about five days or so.
In about 10 days, they’ll start trying to make brief attempts to start standing on their feet. At that time, they’ll try to rear up and snap at you if you come close. Although that will look a little scary, if you put your hand up to them, it won’t hurt; it will tickle a little, feel sort of like being tapped lightly with a plastic pen. Really cute is when they start doing “helicopters,” their first little attempts to fly.
Not much on the pigeon front over here. Very little feeding now, as even when Henry is here, he gets overwhelmed by all the others most of the time. We maange to feed him when not oto many are around; rare now when he can be here alone or just with Maggie, as the others seem to have learned he’s the key to the food. We leave out water, and a few use the place as a daytime community center. One young one really likes sleeping in the flower box in the mornings. One or two take baths in the water dish. Big Eyes will chase any pigeon out of “his spot” in the tree pot we call the “living room” regardless of whether he himself wants to use it. But no one wants to stay here over night now.
I caught them at feeding time this morning, Sauron was regurgitating into one of the little birds beak. Yummy…
Mmmm-mmmm. That’s good eatin’.
What news of the little ones? Thy should be opening their eyes right about now.
Well, I can categorically say that one of the birds is not going to open its eyes, like ever.
This morning I checked the nest and saw there’s now a live baby pigeon and an ex-baby pigeon. I went inside to get a bag and gloves to remove the dead bird but when I went out again Sauron was on the nest and wouldn’t let me near it.
No idea why the bird died, but I don’t think it would be healthy for the other one to have a dead brother in the nest.
Ah, man. Poor little guy. Luck of the draw.
I just removed the body. That was so disgusting I’m not looking forward for breakfast this morning; what with the head coming off and the swarm of ants all over the… ugh.
The other bird didn’t look very well neither, is it normal for them to shiver? It hasn’t opened the eyes yet but it has grown a fair bit since hatching.
They do these little shakes at intervals, we’ve noticed. I hope that’s the same thing as you’re describing. If so, then it’s normal. But again, the poor little guy. Hope the other one makes it. Are the parents acting oddly?
Ale, I’m almost afraid to ask, but how’s it going now? Is the other squab still there and growing?
Over here, nothing much. Our balcony has become a pigeon community center, a bit reminiscent of the dog cafe in the Pooch Cafe comic strip. We’ll feed Henry and a select couple of others, such as his son Ladyboy, if not too many are around. If there are, we’ll close the curtains, and Henry knows that means no food, and he’ll go away. But if he’s really hungry, he’ll jump in the window anyway – we can hear him and see his little shadow – so we’ll try to put out a little.
Maggie has not been around for about two weeks, but she’s disappeared for weeks on end before, and we’re hoping it’s just another case of that. I’m afraid Junior, Moe and Scruffy have probably all kicked the bucket somewhere. Everyone else appears healthy. And there are a few new ones around, including a dark one with glowing orange eyes. A small new gray who loves to soak in the water dish. One we call Brownie, due to a brown streak across an otherwise-normal gray body, has been having sex with a large gray in the designated sex area. How is it they all pick about the same spot on the floor? 