Shoot, poor little bird with tumors. I’m feeling sorry for a pigeon that lives on the other side of the world.
Well, the Little Tumor Guy is an odd one. He was here yesterday (Tuesday), and I got a closer look at him. Poor little thing’s face and beak are covered with tumors. Looks like a pidgee version of the Elephant Man. I don’t really want to take a photo. Still a baby, as the others were pecking at it, and it was squealing and flapping its wings defensively, eating all the while. Doesn’t act sick. In fact, it pecked back a couple of times. But it’s definitely the low man on the totem pole at the moment, as even Gimpy pecks at it. Don’t know if it’s a boy or girl. The size makes me think girl but could just be a frail male. Still very young too, so could still grow.
Just looked outside, as I’d fed Henry, Geri and Gimpy earlier. The Little Tumor Guy is here now, squaling and dlapping defensively while eating.
Just a short update. It’s been a couple of months at least since we bought our new camera, and I’ve still not tried uploading photos from it. Will do that soon. I did take a couple of the Little Tumor Guy, aka the Elephant Pidgee. Poor little guy. Hangs out here a lot, although I’ve not seen him today. Been rather rainy. He does not act sick at all, so maybe his deformity is not life-threatening, but he does tend to sleep a lot, which we don’t think is a good sign. Or maybe it’s a girl. So small, but that could just be due to its health. Still beats its wings and squeals like a stuck pig to keep others away while feeding. Can’t be more than a few weeks old.
The population is reducing, but Henry is clearly put out by the reduced feedings. Sometimes he’ll sit out there and coo for food. But we feed him and Geri and the Inner Circle when we can.
Okay, I’m going to have to get serious about these photos. Not only has the Little Tumor Guy made us her main hangout, but she’ll – I really think this is a girl – sleep here if she thinks no one is home. Saturday and Sunday both, we came home after dark to find her sleeping on the tree pots outside. Tonight the wife was home before dark, and the Little Tumor Guy didn’t stop by. This is a seriously disfigured little pigeon, and she can’t be more than a couple of months old. The tumors keep the beak from closing completely, it stays parted a bit. But she doesn’t seem sick or particularly bothered. She really looks like the pidgee version of the Elephant Man.
I have a couple of photos, but they’re not very good. Will have to try to take some more and upload them by this weekend.
We’re afraid the Little Tumor Guy, who we suspect was actually a girl, has probably died, probably from cancer. 
Not seen her since she stayed here last Thursday night. I’ve still not uploaded the photos to the computer, still very busy, but will have to do that soon so you can see exactly what she looked like. The Elephant Pidgee. Poor little thing took to staying here most nights. But not seen at all even during the day for four days now.
I am going to make a concerted effort to upload and post new photos from the new camera this weekend. Last weekend became unexpectedly busy, so I was not able to do so then. But I have a few good ones including of Spooky – Spooky 2, actually – with her broken leg. She does not seem to be in pain, but the leg has set at an awkward angle and is completely useless. Poor girl hobbles around, but it looks like she’s become used to it and is now very good at hobbling and even landing on it. Best of all, she’s obtained a mate, a big gray who sticks by her protectively. Very sweet.
It’s October now, and the building’s painting is nearing. They’ll have to wait for the rains to end first though, and we’re getting some heavy downpours. Plus we’re all braced for this weekend, when a big typhoon is expected to hit Vietnam and sock Bangkok with a ton of rain. But they’ll end in just a few more weeks, and we’ve still got more pidgees around than we should despite the reduced feedings.
Henry and Geri are obviously sitting on eggs again, as they take turns coming here, always at the same times.
And the sad news is the Little Tumor Guy has apparently died. She just suddenly disappeared, which she would not have done if she’d been okay. We suspected she was getting worse when she started sleeping here at night. They all seem to want to stay here at night when they sense the end is approaching. We even tried to catch her, but she’d have none of that. Fuck cancer.
Oh I’m so glad to see the pidgee posts again. I’d been concerned that something had happened and there wouldn’t be any more pidgee news.
Poor Little Tumor Guy. Tried so hard, and at least, with your balcony, he had a safer place and a fighting chance. Just not a win.
Too bad we can’t get balcony nest pics any more. Maybe a “To Let” sign?
I just hope the pidgees don’t get too drenched this weekend. Tropical Storm Gaemi is expected to hit Vietnam as Typhoon Gaemi late tonight (Saturday night), and while we won’t get the hurricane-force conditions that Vietnam will, it looks like Sunday’s set to be one helluva rainy day for us.
7:15pm Sunday night and still no sign of rain. And I think Gaemi never made it to typhoon status. I’m sure we’ll get something by tomorrow though.
And now the long-awaited photos. The new camera works great, a Canon PowerShot G1X. 14.3 mega-pixel. These are all from the new Canon over the past three months:
Ladyboy and Friend. That’s her on the left. Henry’s daughter, and she’s been coming around 2-1/2 years now. (Henry hates her and always fusses at her.) The one on the right we called Carrot Beak, but he eventually stopped coming around. Funny little guy though.
The first photo of Henry using the new camera. Eating, of course.
A random gray pidgee snoozing away. That little gray spot where his eye goes is his eyelid. It’s always funny watching them drop off to sleep, when they slowly close their eyes and conk out.
Ladyboy again. She faithfully spends half her day here hoping for something to eat. The recent cutback in feedings has not discouraged her at all. She’ll stare us down just like this.
A fully recovered Gimpy. You may remember from earlier that he somehow lost the use of both legs. I actually even tried to catch him at one point to take him to a vet but failed. He did recover though. It’s still a big mystery what happened to him. He comes around only occasionally now, discouraged, we think, by the feeding cutbacks.
And now the sad case of the Little Tumor Guy, whom we believe was female. Poor little thing. Her face and beak were covered with tumors. The far right one is almost hiding her eye from this angle. And here is her left profile. The tumors kept her beak from closing all the way, but she could still eat okay. And she was a flapper and squealer when eating, as you can see here, where’s she’s doing just that to keep that gray away from her while she’s eating. The flapper-squealers are always fun to watch in action. We thought maybe she’d be okay, as she hung around for several weeks. But no, she disappeared suddenly a couple of weeks ago, and we feel certain the cancer got her. 
This one we call Punky Head. He just started coming around not too long ago. But look at the very end of his beak – it’s a bit misshapen, possibly by … a tumor! And there’s one other new baby coming around with a single tumor by the eye. What’s with the cancer outbreaks all of a sudden? But Punky Head seems to be otherwise healthy. Hope so. He’s certainly not in as bad a shape as the Little Tumor Guy was.
And now Spooky with her broken right leg. She’s Spooky 2, the original Spooky having also been a black pidgee. We have no idea how she managed to break her leg, but she showed up with it broken about the same time as Gimpy hurt his legs. But while Gimpy recovered from whatever befell him, Spooky’s leg set at this angle and is completely useless. Here’s a better shot of her and her leg (I think that’s Ladyboy down in the corner of the picture). She does not appear to be in pain now, not at all. Hobbles around on the leg, even lands on it. And she has found a mate, a big gray. We’re wondering how she handles sex. Her mate was pestering her for a litttle nookie today in a part of the mating ritual that we’ve come to recognize. If the male wants sex but the female is more interested in food or anything else at the moment, the male will playfully keep nipping at his mate. The female will move away with the male following, nipping all the while but not seriously. We watched them doing that today. Hope she puts out soon, because we really want to see how she handles that.
And finally, Big Red – he of the chopped-off tail 14 months ago – and his new mate, Snowflake. I think we may have briefly had a Snowflake before, but this little cutie certainly deserves the name. Big Red always, and I mean always, goes for the white ones. This is his third mate and the third almost-pure white. That includes his daughter Pinkie, who was his second mate. “Mmmm, come to Daddy, little girl.” 
And that’s it. Hopefully I’ll start using the camera for something other than pigeon photos. It’s a really good camera, and I can highly recommend it if you’re in the market for a new one.
And again, all of this year’s photos can be seen on this page.
I think Henry is the most attractive of them all. Those are some truly remarkable pics.
You should see him flying around out there, gliding for long stretches. His markings on his outstretched wings make him truly majestic.
Thanks for posting the pics, Sam. The pidgie saga continues…
I don’t suppose your flash new camera has a video function on it? (Hint, hint!)
You just want to get him arrested for making (pigeon) child porn.
At least, I doubt any of the pigeons are over 18.
As a matter of fact, it does have a video function. Maybe I’ll try to make a short video and post it on YouTube. If I can ever figure out how to do all of that. And that’s a big “if,” believe me. 
The rain from Troical Storm Gaemi has started finally. We had to get up about 12:45am and close the windows. Seen some awfully wet pidgees today. There’s a new odd-looking one who looks kind of like a toasted marshmallow. May be sick, as he likes to sleep alot, but his appetite is healthy. Doesn’t seem too afraid of us.
Not much new happening on the pigeon front. Henry and Geri still coming around regular as clockwork. Several new babies coming and going. The rains seem to have stopped but still no word on the building being painted.
But we have a new injured pidgee. A common gray, we noticed a pronounced limp like Festus on Gunsmoke. Likes to sleep in the big tree pot we call the Living Room. He’ll stay there for half the day. (We think it’s a male. Big.) Looking closely, he appears to have gotten his left foot mashed a little. How do these guys know to come here for recovery anyway? Doesn’t seem broken like Spooky’s leg – Spooky’s still coming around too, but her mate only occasionally, so we think she somehow laid some eggs okay – but it will fly even the shortest distance instead of walk and has to lie down to eat. Hope the foot gets better.
I’m still thinking of setting up a YouTube account and trying to take a short video of Henry.
A video would be awesome!
Oh yes, please on the YouTube account! But all the pidgees…as you know that I have to doom one by making it my favorite. Apparently, I am like Oscar the Nursing home cat for pidgees.
About 10am here, and the newly hurt one is out there resting again. I’m trying not to disturb him. From what I could tell, the foot is not broken but rather mashed a bit. Like he caught it in a door or something. I can’t fathom how these birds manage to injure themselves like this.
They’re birds. As cute as they are, they have brains the size of a pea.
I’ve just been wondering how the pidgees are, and Sam comes back with this thread. Yes, video would be awesome.
Sam. if you and the wife ever travel through Kansas for some strange reason, let me know!