Wednesday night and at age 24 days, Laurie has left the flower box again. For sure, no accident this time. She hopped out this evening and finally, after a couple of hours and much wing flapping, made it back into the box under her own power. Then later hopped back out and is outside the box now. Brother Kenny, although a day older, still seems content to stay inside the box.
Thursday morning and at age 26 days, Kenny has hopped out and is going walkabout right now. “So this is the world,” he appears to be thinking. Laurie is staying in the box for now, but we know she can get in and out. Both are bigger than just a couple of days ago and looking like proper pidgees now.
Ladyboy and The Bully have been all sweet to each other lately and hanging out in the Living Room. We expect more eggs soon. We want to find more dirt and move out some of the shit that’s crusting over. Best would be to find a completely new flower box. I’m not sure there are any gardening-supply shops close by. In the past, the wife’s sister would pick it up for us and bring it over, but she got rid of her car. We’ll have to look around maybe this weekend.
I can’t remember, have Ladyboy and the Bully had squabs on the balcony before this latest series? It’s like a marathon of reproduction. 
No, Charlie/Mandy and Kenny/Laurie are the first squabs here for Ladyboy and The Bully. We know they had a nest somewhere, and squabs would follow them here sometimes. Something must have happened to their nest, so they set up housekeeping here.
Ladyboy’s father, Henry, stayed here a couple of nights once, but didn’t seem to like it. Must have been put out by our late hours. Ladyboy was his first daughter four years ago. We don’t know who her sibling was, but she would follow Dad here and pester him for a feeding.
Originally at the start of this thread were Big Pidgee and Little Pidgee. They laid eggs here while the wife and I were up North on holiday. That was in May 2007. Several batches, and while we still have the photos, I posted them on Multiply, which ended its photo service. Ended rather badly when Big Pidgee mysteriously disappeared after 15 months, leaving his mate with a squab – the second egg turned out to be sterile. Then she rejected her squab when she found a new mate, and while trying to take care of little Bob, it’s name, we accidentally killed him with an overfeeding. 
All very sad. Then like a bad soap opera, Little Pidgee turned into a real slut and seemed to take up with a string of males. I think even Henry, who showed up about that time in August 2008, had a turn or two with her. Then she disappeared. But Henry’s been coming around regularly ever since. We really wish he had decided to nest here.
The present squabs turn four weeks old this weekend, Kenny on Saturday and Laurie on Sunday. BIG now. It’s late Friday night here now, and they’ve gone back to the Living Room where they hatched, but sleeping perched on the edge, not crowded inside. Charlie still sleeps here at night, about 2-1/2 months old, but his parents are trying to make him leave. They were both pecking at him last night albeit half-heartedly. The original couple, Big and Little Pidgee, really made an effort to chase old squabs away I think I remember, but this couple aren’t that forceful. But Mandie has been gone a full week now.
Huh. I just checked the beginning of this thread and saw our trip up North was in May 2008. That means I’ve been off by a year for a while now. Henry is four years old and not five, which makes Ladyboy three years old.
Sunday night here and Charlie will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. Still comes back at night, but now he’s getting into fights with Mom and Dad. Teenagers! But it’s clear they want Charlie to leave. Kenny and Laurie turned four weeks old this weekend, and the parents have been having sex like crazy and hanging around in the Living Room like they’re warming it up for more eggs. I think they feel it’s getting to be too many.
At least we hope they do. We’ve started thinking about what will happen if none of the squabs leaves, with two more added every few weeks. But for now Charlie seems determined to stay. (Poor Mandie. We’ll never know what happened to her. :()
The pots are all starting to get pretty grotty, and today we looked at some new ones in a shop. The selection was limited, and there wasn’t anything really appropriate to use as replacements. We’ll keep looking. I did pick up a couple of small bags of dirt and will scoop out some of the shit tomorrow and lay down some fresh dirt for them.
Scooped out all the shit today, in the flower box and the Living Room. Put new dirt down. Nice and soft. Also looked Kenny and Laurie over carefully while I was out there. Seem very healthy, but Laurie has one of those large-ish bugs that plague a lot of pigeons. I’ve seen one on Henry before. Looks like a small spider, but it actually feeds off the pidgees’ blood. Couldn’t get it off of her, it just burrowed in under the feathers. Couldn’t find one on Kenny, but you never know, the hide pretty well.
Ladyboy acted oddly tonight. The wife and I were watching a movie with the lights out, and Ladyboy jumped up into the window just like her father Henry. She’s started doing that recently. The first time I put some food down, but she didn’t want to eat. The Bully chowed down, but she just went back to her rail. After the second time, I wondered – really – if she was trying to convey dissatisfaction with the new dirt in the Living Room, her favorite egg-laying spot. I had make the level uniform, so after the movie I went back out and scooped a little indentation where there was one before. I actually had seen The Bully digging at that spot before it got dark, but he didn’t make much headway. Ladyboy’s not jumped up since, so I dunno, maybe that was it. She’s still on the rail, but maybe new eggs will come soon.
No new eggs yet, but she and The Bully were out there screwing for half the afternoon. And Charlie – 11 weeks old today (Monday) – showed up and pecked his new little brother Kenny. Jealousy?
Wednesday evening and we have another egg! The wife wants single syllables this time, so we’re going to go with Pete and Pam. This one’s Pete.
Kenny and Laurie are 32 and 31 days old now. They like to perch on the edge of the Living Room, where they hatched and where the new egg is. The wife was home during the time Ladyboy must have laid the egg. But she and The Bully were still having sex even after the egg was laid. She said Ladyboy seemed to want to keep kissing, so when The Bully came around to mount her, she turned to kiss some more, and they kept turning around like that, like dancers in an Indian movie. I’ve seen them do that before, and it does look funny.
But Kenny and Laurie like to perch on the edge of the Living Room, and tonight Ladyboy was very aggressive at chasing them away. Kenny was even squealing in shock. They’re sleeping on the floor now.
And Laurie did some real flying today. She was on the floor near the door. I reached out to touch her, expecting her to flee. And she flew up to the top rail. But then she overshot the rail and kept going a ways. She managed to turn herself around and fly back. Sometimes I wonder if I have the two mixed up, if Laurie’s not really Kenny and vice versa. Laurie was first out of the flower box and first to fly. And it was Kenny who cried like a baby when Ladyboy pecked at him tonight to get him away from the nest.
I see now that Laurie has neaked back up to the edge of the Living Room. Strange too but Ladyboy is not sitting on the egg but rather nearby off to the side.
EDIT: And Ladyboy chased her away again.
Thursday night after dark and Laurie and Kenny are sleeping elsewhere. Sort of my fault, as they flew over to the window frames while I was out on the balcony cleaning. Then they didn’t come back. Laurie is sleeping the night over on the window frames. Kenny did try to fly back, but he’s as yet unskilled. When he landed on the rail, he slipped off, causing him to fall a bit, then he recovered and flew to … the balcony right below us! And there he stays. We can see him from our inside windows. He could see us but did not fly back. Looks like he’s sleeping on the concrete verge down there.
I did manage to get one of those large bugs off him though.
Still the one egg. And Ladyboy is acting odd. Sits on it sometimes but usually not. She and The Bully are both over on the rails tonight. As is Charlie, who’s never missed a night here yet.
Friday night and we have the second egg! Little Pam is now out there incubating with her brother Pete. All three times now, Ladyboy has laid her eggs two days apart.
Kenny and Laurie came back this morning. I wonder if Kenny was traumatized on the balcony below. At least Laurie could see onto the balcony from where she was. And she disappeared after daylight this morning, off to some adventure. But it looks like Kenny came straight home.
Ladyboy’s not chasing them away anymore. They’re perched sleeping on the edge of the Living Room right now, while Mama is on the eggs. Maybe she just wanted them gone while she was squeezing out the new ones?
So now we have five mostly white pidgees sleeping out there every night. Soon there will be seven. Charlie will be three months old soon but shows no signs of leaving. We’re starting to wonder if any of them will ever leave. (Poor Mandie. :()
Henry and The Bully have been getting into some real death-grip-style fights these past couple of days. We can break them up on the balcony, but there’s not much we can do when they carry their fight over to the window frames. It’s almost like Henry’s trying to reclaim his balcony. If we feed him and The Bully, we have to pour the piles very far apart.
Will try to post new photos soon.
Kenny, who is five weeks old today, or 35 days, flew off somewhere about the noon hour and never returned. After 10pm here now. Hope he’s okay. He is still being fed by his parents but should be able to eat something else now if need be. Laurie’s here (34 days old now). And of course Charlie (will be 12 weeks on Monday). So four out there tonight, plus two eggs.
Charlie is now a real little pidgee too. His eyes have changed to the orange pidgee eyes from the juvenile black ones. And he has the white “moustache” where the nostrils end up. (Kenny and Laurie’s nostrils are still about halfway down the beak.)
And Kenny came back this morning. I heard squealing outside, and it sounded like more than one squab. Looked out and sure enough, Kenny and Laurie both were harassing Dad for a feeding. Kenny must have been starved. He was gone all afternoon and night.
Tuesday morning and Kenny is gone again, more than 24 hours now. He may have flown the coop.
Expect the new squabs about the weekend after next. Say about the 21st.
I don’t get as many notifications as I would like, but am very happy to see all the pidgee love still going.
And I have to ask, how long has any one pidgee stayed in touch, as it were?
That would be Henry. Coming here regularly for four years as of last month (not five years as previously but mistakenly reported). No. 2 is his daughter Ladyboy, the current mother out on the balcony and a little over three years old now.
I just had to go back to the very beginning of this thread. Six weeks or so. 
You know you can never, ever move now, right? And remember, all gods smile down on those that are kind to the least of us. Except for the asshole gods, but you don’t want them doing any kind of looking at you.
So with the new eggs, that makes 5 generations hanging out there now, right? Henry, Ladyboy, Charlie, Laurie and now Pam and Pete? Have there been that many before?
I hope Mandie and Kenny just got tired of all the annoying relatives and are out being happy little pidgees on their own. 
Hope so too. Very late Tuesday night here, and Kenny’s still missing. We have to assume he’s gone for good now.
Since they’re all Ladyboy and The Bully’s squabs, do Charlie, Laurie, Pam and Pete count as the same generation? But the thing with the original pidgee couple, Big Pidgee and Little Pidgee, is they seemed to do a good job of getting the old squabs to move on when it came time, so this is the first time that one from two batches before is still around.
If we ever do move, we’ll have to capture Henry and Geri and take them to the new place.
:smack: That didn’t make sense, did it? I don’t know what I was thinking.
In other news, poor little Spooky, she of the broken and mangled leg, was having sex with her mate out in the Designated Sex Area the other day. She tried to do that little “victory lap” the female always does afterward but could only hobble around a bit. But she’s really adapted well to her handicap.
Wednesday morning and still no sign of Kenny. Hope he’s still alive and well.