Bummer. 
Ladyboy and The Bully are having endless steamy sex, so I guess more eggs are on the way here. We watched them do it with him on top, then they immediately switched and did it again with her on top! A two-fer.
Ladyboy has really become a jumping fool when it comes to jumping up into the window to beg for food. She’s been doing it for a while but much more lately. The Bully used just to stand there and stare in, letting his sweetie do all the jumping up, but now he’s started doing it too. But he hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet. He tends to sway and flap his wings, can’t keep his balance on the little runner edge like Ladyboy and Henry can. He also try to jump up in the middle of the closed door and can’t seem to understand why that doesn’t work like it does on the sides.
Emmy’s been staying here again at night but for some reason is on the balcony below us tonight. Her wound is slow to heal, because she keeps scratching at it. Must itch.
The Bully has learned his new trick well, jumping up in the window to beg, and keeps doing it. Cute when he and Ladyboy both do it together. We’re trying not to feed them much during the day, because there are just too many coming around now. Nighttime is when we give them their big meal. But they don’t seem to go out and hunt much during the day, so maybe they’re relying too much on us. If so, they’ll be in for a rude surprise when we head to Singapore for a few days in a couple of weeks. They’re smart though and will catch on soon what to do.
They’re both spending a lot of time lounging in the Living Room now too. We think new eggs could come any day now.
Mother Goose squats on Edmonton condo balcony.
Excerpt: “Canada geese are protected by federal laws and tampering with their nest could end up in hefty fines, even prison.” Well, at least no one arrests us for screwing around with the pidgees’ nest, heh.
New development: We have a new egg! Laid this evening (Friday evening). Ladyboy’s been laying her eggs two days apart, so we expect the second egg Sunday. Hatchings could start on May 5, but we’ll be in Singapore then and will probably miss it. Will come home to some brand new squabs.
Six out there now plus an egg. There’s The Bully and Ladyboy, Oscar and Emmy, Jimmy and Jamie, and now a new egg, whose name will be Billy. The second one will be Rose once it appears.
And the parents are still having sex. And really kinky sex too, although it could just be Ladyboy being more interested in food. But twice tonight while Ladyboy was eating, The Bully couldn’t wait and mounted her anyway. He was on her for close to a full minute while she raised up and started walking off, with him still on her! Never saw that before. Little 18-day-old Jimmy had fallen out of the flower box and started chasing after them for a feeding. The whole thing was very funny. (I’ve put Jimmy back in the box.)
And The Bully seems to be afraid now of Oscar, who is almost two months old.
It’s like a pidgee soap opera! And what a beautiful pidgee family. Also, how cool that Henry still comes around! That’s just so awesome. How long do pidgees live, anyway?
I think I’ve read 3-5 years in the wild, up to 15 years in captivity. Henry’s pushing the envelope in that case. But he’s getting some good nutrition from us, so maybe that helps. Ladyboy here is his daughter, four years old now, and she’s still laying eggs.
We cam home today (Saturday) to find 19-day-old Jimmy had fallen out of the box again. It usually happens when they’re clamoring for a feeding. I put him back. Jimmy and Jamie are starting to have Grandfather Henry’s black pattern on top of their heads. Still only one egg. We don’t expect the second one until tomorrow.
We’ve got cardinal eggs.
The nest, however, is on a low chain link fence with some sparse vines around it. I’m afraid it’s a poor nesting location and things will not end well.
I wonder if you could move the nest slightly. The pigeons know when we move their nest and still recognize their young, but I’ve heard some birds won’t understand that the nest over there which used to be over here is the same one.
Sunday afternoon and we have the second egg! Little Rose has joined little Billy. Laid this morning or this afternoon – it wasn’t out there at midnight last night. We expect hatchings to commence while we’re in Singapore, but they could be hatching right about the time we come back. But then we’ll be going upcountry as soon as we do return, so we’ll probably miss a lot of their very early days.
The Bully has really learned the jumping-up-in-the-window trick well. He really is afraid now of Oscar too, but Oscar is deathly afraid of Mama, who will attack him at the slightest provocation.
Monday night and three-week-old Jimmy can hop into and out of the flower box like a pro. He started doing that yesterday. But little sister Jamie, who turns three weeks tomorrow, still refuses to try. They’re still both mostly white, but differences have emerged – Jimmy has more black markings on the throat and tail.
Oscar, two months old tomorrow, has returned to being afraid of Dad, which is probably good. Cute as he and his sister Emmy are, they’re going to need to be moving on at some point, preferably before the new eggs hatch. Our time away starting next week might be a good impetus for them.
Wednesday morning and the new squabs are 23 and 22 days old. Jamie still won’t leave the flower box but will “follow” big brother Jimmy around from inside the box. She just needs time. Jimmy “camped out” on the floor next to the flower box last night.
Meanwhile, Oscar and Emmy are both two months old now. Her wound did finally clear up, no problems there. Still stay here every night but far from the parents, who clearly don’t want them here anymore.
Wednesday night and we’ve had a tragedy. Little Oscar has died. 
He seemed fine yesterday. I noticed him here late this morning, and while that seemed a little odd – he and Emmy are usually gone all day – he didn’t seem sick. But the wife told me she noticed he acted sick tonight. Then I came home awhile ago, and Oscar let me pick him up, didn’t try to get away. So I washed my hands and started looking up a late-night vet on the internet, one that would take birds, when he went into convulsions and died. Poor little guy. Two months and one day old.
He wasn’t crapping or throwing up. Don’t know what was wrong but it was sudden. He even jumped into the flower box a couple of times that my wife saw. Like he remembered that used to be his place. The parents started attacking him, and the wife had to keep them back with a spray bottle. I wonder if he got into something today that he shouldn’t have, like poison. Emmy and the others are okay. They all were staring at Oscar in his final convulsions.
Oh, and Oscar wouldn’t eat or drink tonight either.
The cardinal eggs have hatched. I think there are two. Don’t want to get too close and nosy.
But … they don’t look at all like any cardinal chicks I’ve seen before. Quite a bit darker than pictures I found on the 'Net. I’m worried that there’s something going on like cowbirds.
So seeing this thread and posting the above made me wonder about the cardinal nest status. So I went and checked.
Empty.
Way too soon for fledging. I knew this was going to happen.
Something ate them? Or did the cowbird destroy the hosts eggs, which I just learned they did after looking them up. (I’d not heard of cowbirds before.)
Thursday morning over here, post-crisis. Even if we’d been able to find a vet to help poor little Oscar, we’d have had no chance to get him there. He died very quickly. Chulalongkorn University’s veterinary medicine faculty supposedly operates a 24-hour small-animal clinic, but when we called them there was no answer. I found another vet online that was open 24 hours, but when we called they said they couldn’t help birds, as their bird doctor was only in on Saturdays. Slim pickings for seriously ill birds here, I’m afraid.
All we can be sure of is it was not bird flu. The US Centers for Disease Control have confirmed that pigeons are not affected by that and don’t carry the virus. That’s not a problem here anyway like it is in Vietnam. I suspect some sort of poison, but we’ll never know. I wonder what Emmy thinks of her missing brother. She watched the whole episode transpire.
Thursday night and no new crises. Jamie at 23 days finally hopped out of the flower box. And back in, where she’s stayed ever since. She likes it in there. Brother Jimmy likes wandering around and squealing like a little schoolgirl. But we’re wondering if maybe we actually have two males this time, because 24- and 23-day-old Jimmy and Jamie both seem already larger than two-month old Emmy.
As usual, Mom’s handed over almost all parenting activities to Dad while she tends the new clutch of eggs. Dad keeps preening Jimmy and Jamie, whom he’ll no doubt be chasing after angrily in a few weeks, just like he does Emmy now.
It’s late at night, and Emmy’s been peering in from the balcony floor where she’s been having her late-night snack, maybe wondering just how we get the sun to come up inside here.
Sunday morning and it is FUCKING BROILING outside already. This is the hottest time of the year, and forecasters say today is destined to be the hottest day. (They said the sun will be closest to Bangkok today. Really. Yes, we’re scratching out heads over that one too.) It’s been getting close to 110 Fahrenheit with high humidity. Normally we sleep with the windows open year-round, but we’ve been running the air-con lately.
And the poor little pidgees are feeling it too, as they keep huddling in the shade. Jimmy and Jamie are getting big, both turn four weeks in the next couple of days, and they’re running around the balcony a lot. Jamie has finally left the flower box and is discovering the world of the balcony. The two sleep huddled together outside the box at night now.
Emmy, meanwhile, is gone all day but returns at night. Especially now that her brother is gone, we suspect she’ll leave soon. She really is much smaller than the two new squabs.
We’re not leaving for Singapore until later in the week. I’ll try to post a few more new photos before we go.
I’m so sorry about the loss of Oscar and of the newborn Cardinals.