That’s pretty awesome.
I’ve got the balcony doors open now, and he’s out there having a morning meal as I type this. We have a very good relationship. If I have to squirt water at a bullying pidgee, the bully and any other pigeon nearby will freak and fly off, but Henry takes it in stride, even if the bully was right by him. He knows, he really seems to know, that we’re helping him. He will not allow himself to be touched though, that’s a strict no-no, and he would not dream of coming inside.
Well, that didn’t quite work out, medicating the flock. Seems there was a bit of misunderstanding on the pigeon boards: I thought they meant I should mix the Flagyl with the pidgees’ drinking water, and they thought I meant mix it into water I would squirt into a captured pidgee’s mouth. Seems if I did mix the Flagyl in the drinking water, the particles would soon clump together, plus the water would become so sour they wouldn’t drink it anyway.
Oh well, Henry’s still healthy – eats a lot now, and I mean A LOT – and if anyone shows up sick again, we have the pills to use if we can just manage to capture them. It was only a couple of bucks for 14 200mg pills. They said to get the pidgee to swallow a quarter pill.
Have a couple of new photos I’ll have to post soon.
Thursday was Chinese New Year, but there have been firecrackers going off since Wednesday. The elaborate Chinese-Thai temple that our condo unit overlooks is a prime source, so that’s been keeping the pidgees very much on edge, heh.
But the big news is one of Henry’s new squabs has started coming over here. Just one. Wednesday was the first appearance but has stopped here briefly each day since (it’s Friday now). There’s no doubt it’s his. A white underbelly, and on the wings and top is a marbled black-and-white pattern. Seems young and very awkward. Flies like a bat! Sort of veers around, still trying to get the hang of it. Always leaves before I can take his photo but will keep trying. Henry’s still eating like a pig, so may be still feeding the nest. No sign of Maggie.
How cute!!!
And we just saw what has to be the second squab. While the first one is so ugly it’s cute, this one looks sleek and pretty, white with some black trim. Have to try and take some photos.
We also think Ladyboy has eggs somewhere. Now she and her mate the Pretty One are never here at the same time. She’s here during the day, while he’s early morning and late afternoon. Must be more squabs on the way, Henry’s grandchildren.
Got some photos of that first squab, who we’re convinced belongs to Henry and Maggie. He’s been showing up fairly often these past few days. We’ve named him Phil, because he first appeared on Groundhog Day last Wednesday. All of these were taken yesterday (Sunday).
Phil and friend. That’s him on the left. Unfortunately, the gray is not Maggie, who remains missing.
Frontal view. This one really shows he has Henry’s belly.
Phil takes a drink. Funny how a lot of pidgees will climb onto the edge of the water dish like this, while others, like Henry, just drink while standing on the floor.
Bird’s-eye view. This one really shows his intricate pattern. Reminds us a little of Max when he was still around.
Phil contemplates the world. He looks like a turkey in this one. He does have rather an odd-shaped head.
Three-quarters view. This one shows up his pattern some more.
All the other pigeons seem okay with Phil except for Henry. Henry will chase him away. We think Dad doesn’t want his children following him over here. He chases Ladyboy the same way, but she’s still become a regular over here. Phil may become one too, as he’s been looking around and familiarizing himself with the place. Nibbles the plants a little. Has learned there’s always water here.
Maybe he will find a mate and nest! We can only hope.
Do you still go to the pigeon boards?
Phil’s gorgeous! What a great pattern!
Yes, and I’m Siam Sam on those, too. But actually, except for some technical questions like for medecine and such, the posts are about the same as here.
Seconded!
Goofy Phil! He’s going to be a regular. Still at the squealing stage when Dad chases him away. The second one we’ve only glimpsed a couple of times, doesn’t seem very interested in us, but Phil keeps checking us out.
We’ve seen a couple other new ones this week. Darkish. Funny how they all make their way to here. Word spreads.
Well, it’s looking like Phil may actually be a Philipa! There’s an aggressive gray male, possibly the one in the first two photos, that likes to chase other pidgees away when Henry’s not here, but he lets Phil hang around. And then yesterday I surprised them in the act of preening each other. :eek: Hmmm. By our reckong, Phil must be less than two monts old. Is that old enough to start feeling frisky?
It’s almost certain Ladyboy has eggs somewhere. She and her mate, the smaller Pretty One, keep very separate schedules for being over here and at the same times of day.
And now the one we assume is the second squab, Phil’s sibling, has started hanging around for the first time today (Friday). Definitely the younger of the two. Very skittish. Not helped by all the other pidgees, including Dad, chasing it away. Looks very young and innocent and still has large “puppy” feet. Has that look of wonder at the world that the young ones always have.
The skittishness is making it difficult to take a photo. When I try to stop anyone from chasing it, it thinks I’m chasing it too, so that doesn’t help either. So when I try to creep around with a camera, it also thinks I’m after it. I’ve taken one or two shots, but they’re not good. This one is mostly white with a very light gray head – the entire head is sort of covered with Henry’s pattern on the top of his head – and very subtle black and even brown streaks in the body that aren’t showing up on the shots I took. They’re very light. Another elegant-looking pidgee. Henry sires good-looking children. I’ll try to take some better photos and post what I have soon.
Well, there’s really been a lot of activity these last couple of weeks. That second squab is hanging around, and we’ve named her Faye. Presumed sibling Phil and her mate have stopped hanging around as much. But this past Monday was bath day for some reason. Phil took a bath while her mate preened her all over, then both snoozed, Phil in the water dish, the mate – called Dot, due to a single dot on either wing above the stripe – lounged down and snoozed next to her outside the dish. Then he took a bath later while Phil dried off in the sun. Then a Sammy design took a bath later that day. Monday was particularly hot, but no other baths before or after that day that we can tell.
LOTS of new young pidgees arriving, with at least one still having some of its yellow fuzz. Just this morning (Friday morning, a young one that was BLACK black came by for the first time. With HUGE eyes. Looked almost like a cross with a mynah bird. The regular Dark One, which is one of the usual bullies, attacked it viciously, and I had to break it up. But this new one wandered around out there all morning
There are three outright bullies – the Dark One, the big Pretty One (as opposed to the small Pretty One, which is Ladyboy’s mate and who is a semi-bully) and White Wing. They will immediately attack any other pigeon just out of general principle, and as soon as we see one of these three, we spray water to get it out of here. But the big Pretty One is a tough guy. He knows now that the water’s not going to hurt him, and I swear he actively challenges me. I’m not imagining this. He doesn’t like getting squirted at close quarters but at any distance he just sort of takes a shower with it and glares at me. His mate is one of the Sammy designs, and they’ll fly in, have sex in the designated sex area, then fly off, like they’re taunting us. One day, they actually had sex while balanced on the top rail of the balcony! And not while positioned along the rail, but rather perpendicular to it. It was an amazing balancing act. Then they flew off. But we may have to get a regular water gun if our piddly little spray water is not going to work well. Those three still intimidate Henry, who will fight back if it’s any others but not these.
And it looks like Henry has a new mate. Just this week, a new young one started showing up with him. We’ve not seen any displays of affection between them, but they’re always together now, and she eats with him. Tiny! So very small, even smaller than Ladyboy. We’ve named her Pim, a common Thai girl’s name. But the thing is she looks an awful lot like Henry. Definitely some Blue Grizzle mixed in. But that would be at least three belonging to Henry recently, and that can’t be possible, unless we’re wrong about Phil. But we suspect Pim may belong to the bully the big Pretty One, because we noticed one day while they were both here that he wouldn’t attack her like he does all the others. That one has green as a predominant color, and Pim has a big splash of green on the throat and a smaller one on the back of the neck; otherwise looks a lot like Henry. But so small! I saw them flying together off in the distance yesterday, she trailing right behind him, and Henry’s twice her size.
Ladyboy now hangs out here most of the day, hoping for food. Almost everyone can chase her though, so we can’t give her any if we’re too busy to guard her unless no one else is around. She just stands out there and stares in at us, just like her mother the presumedly late Maggie. She knows that sooner or later, we’ll give her something. She and her mate have been showing up together more lately, so we guess any eggs of hers have hatched. We expect to see their squabs in the next two or three weeks.
Have some photos. Will have to try to sort those out.
And Phil just now took a bath! Then Dot started to, but the new black one came back, and Dot attacked it. Had to break that up.
Well, we think we’ve determined that Pim is not Henry’s mate after all, but rather his daughter, and she’s sticking like glue to Daddy. Apart from the couple of splashes of green, which seem to result from a cluster of dark spots, and more of a checkerboard pattern on the wings, she looks just like him. There’s been no romantic affection, and indeed Henry seems to be getting a little tired of her following him around all day every day, as he’s started to peck and chase her away just a little. But she stays close, and he usually lets her eat with him. And so tiny! Smallest feet of any pigeon we’ve seen. But she looks like she’s starting to get bigger now, or so it seems this morning.
But that means we’ve been crediting him with more squabs than there could be – Phil, Faye and now Pim. All three can’t be his, and we’re thinking now we may have made a mistake about Phil. I thought she went squealing to Henry once, but she may have just been squealing out of general fright or even to another pigeon that was present.
Well, this new black one is now a regular. Poor little guy, looks half-mynah. We do get the odd mynah bird or two stopping by. But if you look closely, he’s not as black as he appears at first glance, there’s a definite pattern to be seen. Goofy-looking little guy. In fact, that’s what we call him, Goofy. Always has a few feathers out of place too, turned over to reveal a lighter shade underneath, adding to the comical effect. Definitely the low man on the totem pole now, as even Faye and Pim chase him.
And Pim is still sticking with Daddy. No romantic invlovement that we can see, but I suspect it would be fine with her if there were. She really loves her Daddy and stays with him 24/7 from what we can tell.
We’re keeping the curtains closed more now, as there’s strting to be too many coming around again, but when Henry – and Pim – comes around, we think he can detect curtain movement, from the air-con, and jumps into the window. So then we’ll feed him but still have to stand guard to keep the bullies away. Ladyboy and now Gooffy will hang out there all day long until we feed them. The return of the really hot weather has resulted in an increase in bath activity. And the other day, we found the remnants of a hatched pigeon egg on our balcony. We can only assume it blew there from a balcony higher up. We’ve listened for squealing but can’t hear any, but then there are 30 floors of balconies above ours. I suppose it could have been stuck to a pidgee’s foot who flew here. Wonder who it belonged to.
Promise to get those photos up soon.
Well, Henry and Pim are now officially an item. They finally “did it” today in the designated sex area. Man, the size difference! We were afraid Big Henry was going to crush Little Pim, but she seeemd to enjoy it, as evidenced by her little victory strut afterward.
Pim is Henry’s third sexual partner that we know of. Before here were Maggie of course and Little Pidgee, back when she was in her “slut phase” after Big Pidgee disappeared.
Finally, the promised new photos! 
But first I have to say we’re leaning against the notion that Pim is Henry and Maggie’s daughter from possibly their last batch. For the past couple of weeks, they’ve stopped being inseparable, coming here instead on different schedules that would seem to indicate eggs are being looked after somewhere by one of them at all times. If Pim were truly as young as we’d thought, this would probably be too soon for her to be laying eggs. But we’re sure they’re related somehow. You can see for yourself.
The photos below were all taken between February 9 and March 16.
Faye. We’re pretty sure she’s Henry’s daughter. If you look closely, you can see a couple of very light-brown streaks in her wing. Skittish little girl. Freaks out if you just look at her.
A couple of cute ones. Phil taking a bath while her mate Dot lounges down next to the water dish and gives her a head massage. That’s Ladyboy over on the rail and an unknown gray barely visible between the two large pots. And then after Phil finished, Dot takes his bath while Phil dries out in the “Living Room.” Ladyboy seems to be looking around for something to eat.
And now, Henry’s new mate, Pim. Henry was around somewhere when I took this, maybe chasing away other pidgees.
Pim and Henry eating together. You can see the green on her throat/upper chest a little better here. We think it could mean one she’s the daughter of the Big Pretty One, who is one of the bullies we have to guard against. But we don’t know.
Pim and Henry again. You can see the size difference. It’s a hoot to watch them flying together off in the distance, with tiny Pim trailing behind big Henry.
Goofy! A funny little guy. Seems all alone. We’ve taken pity on him.
A closer look at Goofy. He always has a few feathers turned up out of place. And you can see he has a little bit of a pattern etched into his wing feathers and is not as dark as he initially appears.
Pim and Henry in birdseed heaven
A group photo: Ladyboy, Goofy, Pim and Henry. The size difference between Henry and Pim is apparent here, too.
A very good shot of Pim. A little cutie, it’s easy to tell what Henry sees in her. The green is easily seen here.
Goofy again. He always seems comical. Part of it is the way his eyes seem to bulge out, an effect of the orange against the black background. And his clown feet.
Finally, Goofy and Pim.
We had one hellacious unseasonal storm about dawn a couple of days ago, too. Saw a bunch of wet pidgees afterward. Henry and the usual crowd looked drenched, poor little guys.