Oh please, keep an eye on it and let us know what happens!
Don’t worry. We want to see if anyone claims it tomorrow! I think I’ve seen the second egg come along a day or two later. Maybe the poor mother is fretting away out in the dark.
Mystery solved! The mother of the egg is … Ladyboy! She came back to sit on it this morning, her mate The Bully staying close by in attendance. The wife said the couple had been around late yesterday. Why Ladyboy did not stay with the egg, we don’t know.
One theory is maybe she already laid an egg in their regular nest but got caught at our place by the rain and felt an overpowering urge to drop it out. Then needed to go back to the nest when the rain stopped to take care of the first egg. So maybe this is actually the second one (there’s still only one out there). Dunno. But Ladyboy is clearly the mother.
This will prove problematic. She’s Henry’s daughter, but Henry hates her. I’m not sure how he’ll react. I tried feeding her and her hubby this morning, then suddenly 10 or 12 other pidgees showed up, resulting in a free-for-all that I feared might damage the egg. So no feedings for now. We’ll see what happens come nightfall.
Ladyboy is about three years old, and The Bully is her second mate. She teamed up originally with an older male called Small Pretty One, whom you may recall, but we think he eventually died. So this egg contains Henry’s grandchild. (Grandsquab?)
Will try to arrange some new photos soon. (Don’t ask me to define “soon.” :D)
Oh, and we had a big downpour about 3am. I had to get up and go pull the “living room” in closer, because it was right by the edge of the balcony as you may remember, and I was worried about the egg getting wet. (I have no idea if soaking these eggs is harmful.) So it’s pulled in closer to the window, and I’m not sure how Ladyboy feels about that. It will certainly help keep her dryer during any more nighttime rains … if she actually stays here overnight.
Ohboyohboyohboy!
I’m going to be checking this thread each time I get online, to see if there are further developments.
Oh wow, a new egg! You guys must be so excited!
I thought your balcony had been rezoned by the pidgees to “the pub” instead of “the nursery”!
I’ve always thought the problem was that there was too much pigeon traffic for a pair to feel it’s secluded enough for a nest. But with them cutting back on the feeding, and being gone for a vacation, maybe it was seen as less busy now.
How exciting! (Why does Henry hate his own daughter? And how do you know he hates her?)
I don’t really want to slog through 25 pages of backstory again, but could you briefly remind us of Ladyboy’s history?
And did she ever get around to laying another egg?
Well, we’ve been back for over a month, so they know we’re busier again. I think my theory of they just got stuck here in the rain and she had to drop it out may be the correct one. No, no other egg, at least not here. They’re staying here most of the time now but will still go off and leave the egg unattended.
Ladyboy is Henry’s daughter. She got her name because she looks so feminine, but then we thought she was a male due to her aggressiveness. Thus the name Ladyboy. But then later we realized she was a female after all when she found a mate, a big male. But the name stuck. Henry’s been here four years now but had trouble finding a mate originally. Ladyboy is his first daughter, about three years old. We know she’s his because she would follow Mom and Dad here, squealing and pestering them for a feeding. (Her mother was Maggie, Henry’s first mate, presumed dead now.) We know Henry hates her because he gets very angry around her and attacks her. This seems to be normal among pidgees from what we’ve seen. Maybe a mechanism for making them leave the nest. But he really hates her, really gets all angry. Puffs out his neck, dances around, makes threatening noises. But he’s out there now as I write this and seems too perplexed to be angry.
Ladyboy and The Bully (her present mate) stayed here last night (Friday night). But we were gone until after dark, so they may have thought it safe. No one slept on the egg, but Ladyboy stayed perched on the side of the pot, The Bully on the rail. But … three other white ones also stayed! One was Baby. Not sure about the other two except one must have been his new mate. All clearly related to Henry. Five white blobs in the darkness whenever we looked out. They may be Ladyboy’s children from before, dunno. We’ve been seeing them over on the window frames at night, but it was raining last night, so they may have been sheltering here
I came across this thread a couple years ago and read the entire thing in an afternoon. I never knew pigeons could be so fascinating! Since then I’ve always been excited to see an update. Now that I’m officially posting here I can tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading the stories, seeing the pictures and watching their lives play out. Thank you. (And I can’t wait to see what happens with the egg.)
Welcome to the Dope, aurora maire!
Thank you, aurora maire. 
Sorry all the other photos disappeared.
And we have a second egg! Laid this afternoon (Saturday afternoon). That’s two days apart, which as we know is not unusual. It takes about 17 days to hatch if I recall – it’s been four years – so two weeks from now we should be getting ready for the first one to come out.
I still think they laid the first egg here due to being stuck the rain. They stay here every night now, but I don’t know what happened to their nest, wherever it is. They’ve not even built a new nest here, just dropped the eggs into the dirt. I’m looking at them right now as I’m sitting here. It’s after 10:30pm, and they’re both there. I recall Big Pidgee usually did not stay here at night with Little Pidgee back in those days. This being their first experience here at night, they’re probably surprised that we don’t go to bed at sundown like decent creatures.
The other white ones are not here tonight. Must have been the rain last night. I spotted two sitting in the upstairs neighbor’s window.
I took a couple pictures this morning of the one egg – it was still one egg then – and Ladyboy sitting on it. You may remember she resembles her father a lot, but not as many black markings. I’ll try to get those photos up soon on Flickr.
Oh, and while Ladyboy seemed a little cavalier about leaving the first egg unattended and even slept standing on the edge of the living room last night, now that there are two eggs, she’s staying right on top of them.
I am thrilled. Never thought I’d say that about pidgees, before this thread ever started.
So does this mean Ladyboy and her mate are now the “preferred pidgees” instead of Henry? =)
Henry’s always No. 1. Henry is king. But we’ve always been partial to Ladyboy too, and we can’t just kick the poor mama out. (As if we could. How do you kick out a pigeon?) Her mate, though, has definitely earned his name of The Bully. We don’t like him. But I have to admit he’s very attentive to his sweetie. And he’s usually afraid of Henry anyway.
Henry seems to know instinctively that something is up. Again yesterday, he did not act mad at or attack Ladyboy. Something is holding him back, so that’s one problem solved. The few times now that Ladyboy leaves the eggs unattended, other pidgees do not mess with them. It’s like they know they’re off limits. But feeding has become nearly impossible. If we put a little down, a dozen birds show up and a free-for-all ensues, posssibly endangering the eggs. That’s unless we have time to guard them and keep the others away with a water gun. But only Henry understands that we’re not chasing him away. Any others we’re trying to protect think they’re being chased away too, so it’s pointless for all but Henry.
This is new territory too in the sense that back in the early days of Big and Little Pidgee, there were never any other pigeons around. There never was a problem with others showing up. Our balcony’s become a clubhouse these days.
I’m going to clean the balcony today, which will give Ladyboy some anxious moments. I’m considering transferring the eggs to the rectangular flower box. It’s roomier, and the squabs will grow quickly. I’m worried they’ll fall out of the tree-pot living room. I may try it and see how Ladyboy accepts it.
Me, neither! Funny, huh?
Three preliminary photos on our new Flickr account. I took these over the weekend.
Here’s Ladyboy’s first egg, the photo taken Saturday. This was laid last Thursday evening.
Then yesterday (Sunday), I took this shot of Ladyboy on what is now two eggs, but you can see one protruding from underneath her. And then the two eggs together. Again, the second egg was laid Saturday afternoon.
(And since I’m linking to Flickr, here are the other two photos we have on there: Mr and Mrs Siam Sam having a sushi brunch in Tokyo in April. That’s in Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest in the world. Our sushi chef took the picture. Before that, I took this shot of the sushi he prepared. We each had a plate.)
Have you asked advice on the pidgee boards as to whether it would be advisable, or not, to move the eggs.
The Board I was on went down. We’ve moved the eggs before, when we gave Little Pidgee the flower box. She was in just a small, cramped flowerpot before.