It’s Friday the 30th over here, exactly one year since I posted this thread. The egg appeared, but the parents stayed someplace else that night, so it was another day until we could learn who the parents were. They’ve stayed here every night since. Fend for themselves quite well whenever we’re away. And to think people actually keep birds in cages to keep them from flying away.
And 24-day-old Billy has hopped out of the flower box and walked around the balcony. He can hop back in too. Good show, Billy!
I plan to work on clearing up the photo-transfer problem this weekend.
I had forgotten there had been such a long gap between pidgee couples. Sounds like the current ones are making up for it though!
Yeah, about four years.
Well, I solved the upload problem to the computer. We’ve got to get either more memory or, like we’ve been planning for at least two years now, a new computer. (I think ours is eight years old now.) But the photos are on the computer now, and I’ll upload them to Flickr sometime this week.
Okay, a few new photos, all of Billy, the latest squab, all taken last month. We’re assuming he hatched May 6, the day before we returned from Singapore.
Billy at one week, with The Bully, his father. His eyes are open,and his feather shafts are starting to sprout.
Billy at 12 days, looking awkward placed on a freshly washed balcony floor. And a close-up. It’s very apparent now that he’s going to be another whitey.
Billy at two weeks, just moved into the flower box. And a three-quarters view. We moved him just in time. Two days later, Ladyboy laid her new eggs in the Living Room, and the parents always seem to be thinking of using the flower box for a new nest until we move the squab9s) to roomier digs.
And jump ahead to last Friday and we see Billy at 24 days, with Ladyboy the mother on the new eggs. Billy’s looking like a real pigeon here. Still has some adolescent features such as an undeveloped nostril area, and he’ll grow bigger still, but this is pretty much what he’ll look like. We like the white “mask” on his face.
It’s Monday night now, and Billy is 27 days old. Odd but Mama isn’t chasing him away from the nest and new eggs yet like she’s done previous squabs at about Billy’s age now.
And all the photos can be seen on one page here.
Added bonus: Here’s Siam Sam in a small coffee shop along the canal that hosts the floating market in Amphawa, a couple hours from Bangkok. And **Siam Sam’s** first selfie, with Mrs. Siam Sam,on a boat in the canal.
And as a side note, here’s a short video I shot last month of the floating market in Amphawa, Thailand.
Thursday night, and 30-day-old Billy can fly across the balcony now. And none too soon, because the workers checking the building for cracks are moving over to this side now. I think Billy can fly away if he really needs to. Hopefully it won’t come to that. We don’t expect the workers to do much around where our unit is. But the eggs are out there. Not much we can do about that. Today we started putting out water for them only at night to be less obvious. This should last just a week or two.
Sunday morning and we expect hatchings anytime now. Meanwhile, 33-day-old Billy is flying like a semi-pro now. Yesterday at age 32 days, he followed Dad over to the window frames.
Sunday afternoon and both eggs are showing cracks. And the cracks in one of the eggs are moving. Coming soon, right on schedule.
And we have a new squab! Wally hatched sometime this morning (Monday morning). I can’t get a clear look at him yet, because Mama’s on the nest. While I can move Dad along easily, Mama stands her ground and angrily pecks at me if I try to shoo her over, so I’ll wait. But I could see her lower feathers ruffling a little, then little Wally poked his beak out, so I know he’s there. Hopefully sister Rose is coming soon.
Aww! 
We’ve just had a tragedy. I saw Dad on the nest, and him I can move over easily just by touching his tail, so I did … and I found little Wally dead! 
He’s hatched out perfectly, I saw him poking his little beak out from underneath Mama just a couple or three hours ago, but he’s dead as a doornail now. Poor little guy.
I inspected the body. Perfectly formed, no injuries that I could see. But I did notice some ants in the Living Room. Could they have been responsible? There were none on the body at all. Just to be safe, I moved the other egg over to the other flower pot, which has no ants. Rose is trying to hatch right now, there’s a hole in the egg, and you can see her moving around inside. The parents are clearly not happy that I’ve moved the egg, they keep inspecting the old nest, but Ladyboy has just settled on the egg in the new nest. I may transfer them to the flower box.
RIP, Wally.
EDIT: I did that just now. Moved the egg containing Rose to the flower box. They’ve often seemed to be wanting to stay in the flower box, but I’ve always transferred the latest squabs into there before they can lay any eggs in it.
Mama’s not taking the move well. She keeps sitting on the old nest despite the fact that there are no more eggs or squabs and is giving me a “Go to hell” look. She seems confused. She’ll look at the egg in the other tree pot, walk around look at the pot, then go back to the nest. I had hoped putting the other tree pot in the spot where the Living Room was would smooth things over, but not so far. Just now I tried petting her, figuring that would get her to move, but she wouldn’t budge. Made angry noises and pecked my hand furiously – didn’t hurt, just tickled – and refused to budge. So I’m not sure what to do about this other egg. Rose is trying to hatch out now as I type this. Dad has disappeared, possibly freaked out by the whole turn of events.
Ah, okay. Before I could post this, I see Mama has finally moved onto the egg in the new spot. She’s nesting on it now. Hopefully this will turn out well.
But what killed Wally? Poor little guy. I inspected his body closely. No marks like ant bites. No injuries that I could see. I wonder if he could have suffocated under his parents in this brutal heat. This is a very hot time of year.
Anyway, Mama’s on the new nest now. I plan to dispose of the Living Room today if it’s really has ants in it.
Monday night and it’s been a day of high drama with the pidgees. Poor little Wally dead after just a few hours of life. The parents saw me taking the body away, so I hope they don’t blame me for anything.
Rose hatched this afternoon. She seems to be doing fine. I’ve disposed of the Living Room, because close inspection showed some sort of ant colony had set up in there. Did that have anything to do with Wally’s death? No idea. Again, there were no ants on Wally, no bite marks. It’s very mysterious. But I recall that egg in the previous batch, the squab dying while trying to hatch. Ants? Best to get rid of the pot. The other tree pot has no ants or other insects of any kind.
But Rose seems very healthy and wiggly. Much smaller than Wally was, but Wally had an extra two days to develop inside his egg. I still think of Ladyboy fighting me off today. I thought that by trying to pet her, she’d just move to the egg, but she really stood her ground. Sure, I could have pushed her or picked her up, but I didn’t want to use force. I was pissing her off enough already. And she’s sure giving me the stink-eye tonight all right.
Tuesday morning and I’m pleased to report that little one-day-old Rose is doing well. Poor little thing is going to be another only child. But she seems healthy and wiggly. The parents are taking care of her. They seem a little bummed about the loss of the Living Room, but it had to go. We do need to trim off some of the dead tree that’s in the this pot however, because it’s taking up more space in here than the one in the Living Room did.
Billy died early this morning (Wednesday morning), aged 36 days. Poor little fella. I’d noticed he might be looking a little sick yesterday and so was going to monitor him. Then suddenly he died. This is not a good week for pidgees on our balcony.
Except for Rose. Two-day-old Rose is doing well. I hope she continues doing well. The wife and I are starting to wonder if there’s something going on with the squabs and eggs that may be rooted in Ladyboy being so old now. We know she’s four years old, and we think that’s getting up there for a wild pigeon. One egg in the last clutch did not make it, and Wally in this one died soon after hatching. Oscar died mysteriously. Jimmy disappeared suddenly, and we still don’t know what happened with that. There was that entire clutch in January that failed to hatch. And I remember Kenny had that eye problem before he disappeared last year.
So now at night out there we have the parents, Emmy (about 3-1/2 months old), Jamie (two months) and the mysterious outsider Mister X or just X. And now Rose.
Sunday morning and Rose is six days old and doing well. Her eyes opened on Friday at four days. I picked her up and waved hello, and she pecked around me in case I was bringing her a feeding. She doesn’t know enough yet to be afraid of me. That will come naturally soon. They start raising up and snapping when they see you at about 10 days or so.
I’m getting a little worried about Henry. He’s not been seen for more than a week. His mate Geri still comes by, so maybe he’s just on the nest in the daytime again.
Spooky has a bunch of string snarled around her lame leg, and we’re not sure how that happened. Did she do that herself somehow, or did someone try to catch her? Makes me think of Tony No Toes, who still comes around. He first showed up missing a few toes and with string wrapped around his feet. We think he may have lost toes trying in getting away.
This week the workers sealing the building’s cracks will be on the balcony side. We’ll have to keep water out only at night, but at least the heat has dissipated some. The rains have even started a little.
Just a side note: Henry showed up again shortly after my post above. We fed him a nice lunch. 
That’s good. He’s one of the “regulars”!