New eggs and little Vultures

From the

Diary as of 9/26/ – 10/1/08

9/27/08 Emma laid another egg. ANOTHER ONE. I have given up counting in the meanwhile.

Each morning all 6 pigeons are here and our orphan child Fritzi – who is now part of the family – sunflower seeds eating. Every morning at the same time, patiently waiting for me to come out with the seeds pots in my hands….

Winni looks now as if she is going into moult also…

9/28/08 Weather is getting better now – a bit warmer and not so wet.

Pete and Jimi are sleeping in pigeoncity regularly each night – without exception. Emma is sitting on her egg in the pigeon villa.

Jimi is still moulting and looks terrible now – really like a little vulture. This morning I realized that Emma is moulting as well. This happened nearly from one day to another…

9/29/08 Emma has laid the second egg as anticipated. This time I did something different. I removed one egg when Emma was gone for a snack, emptied and cleaned it completely and thoroughly and filled it with plaster. I waited 2 days until it was completely dried out and put it back under Emma’s belly. Funnily she tolerated this without too much hazzle.  I think this will work better than the oil. The egg is much heavier now and I wonder whether Emma will realize this. Maybe she thinks she will get some monster babies – oh my… ???

10/1/08 I filled the second egg with plaster. Before I emptied it with a syringe I held the egg against the light and you could already see the little embryo, the blood veins. I don’t feel very well that I had to remove this egg also but I also don’t want Emma to create more and more chicks. She won’t live long if she continues like that – I want to give her a pause. I am curious how long it will take this time until she realizes that there will never be chicks coming out of these eggs…

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This is Winnie as a little vulture – she looks ridiculous but also sooooo sweet:

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Moult and Tons of Feathers and a Love-Nest

From the

Diary as of 9/21 – 9/25/08

Only Jimi and Emma and Pete are sleeping on the balcony in the meanwhile. Pete is losing pounds of feathers, Emma as well. And Jimi – he looks like a vulture. Nothing to notice on Winnie – moultwise – which I find strange. Maybe she starts later with it.

We have a new orphan child which we called Fritzi. He is such a sweetie and begging for food all the time. He is completely dark grey and still has those yellow needle feathers. He has eye rings through which he is easily recognizable. And he seems to look sad somehow.

Winni and Willi are best friends now – always together appearing and flying away. Joey – who was Willi’s girlfriend before – was left by Willi – naughty naughty….

Each morning all 6 piggies appear on the balustrade to get their seeds for breakfast. Well – we have a 7th now: Fritzi, who always tries to get his share… with huge success. He is the smallest and the youngest and the cheakiest. And he confirms his appetite with loud squeaking noises. Very funny.

Emma and Pete are mating AGAIN. Oh my what can I do???

9/25/08 Emma finally started with her moult and suddenly looks like a rat.

And here are the lovers, Pete and Emma, in their cosy love-nest:

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Stinky Eggs and coupling again…

From the

Diary as of 9/16/ – 9/20/08

Today on the 16th they are all gone in the evening – where bloody hell are they sleeping?

The next day in the evening: all 5 are sleeping in pigeon city – Pete, Willy and Joey, Jimi and Winnie!

The black pigeons is really nerving in the meanwhile  -  he steals food all the time and I am busy chasing him away with the water sprayer. Why does Pete don’t do his job he is supposed to do???

Emma is eating with Jimi in perfect harmony from the little plastic bowl. No fighting!

The next morning they are all coming again for their breakfast: Willy, Joey and Winnie eating in perfect harmony on the balustrade from one little pot I hold in my hands. All 3 heads are diving into the seeds – what a picture…

9/18/ 08 The eggs began to stink – apparently I did not clean them good enough. I am afraid of Emma getting some nasty bacteria so I decided to take them away …

Result:  Emma seemed to be so happy that she immediately went to Pete and groomed him. I had the impression they were both so happy being not alone any more. This behaviour seems to be soooo human like… it is amazing!

Why Emma is sitting more or less on Pete’s face is yet to be interpreted. A strange behaviour and a strange pigeon love? I have no idea… But what do we know about birds…

9/19/08 All of our 6 pigeons sleep in pigeon city. The whole family in harmony – what a picture…

The next day this can change again – and it does…

9/20/08 Pete is playing macho again and chases everybody away. Maybe he is frustrated – it is very cold…

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Huddled together…

From the

Diary as of  9/11/ – 9/14/08

The black pigeon is becoming a nerve in the meanwhile. He is really impertinent and feeds on the food of “our” pigeons. I have to shoo him off because otherwise I will soon have a whole flock of pigeons here on the balcony and then Pete will be in deep trouble.

The first strong winds appear and it’s getting colder. In the middle of the night Winnie flew out of his box – somehow she was afraid of something I could not identify – maybe it was just the wind. She reappeared the next morning as if nothing had happened and participated in the general breakfast feeding.

The next days one or the other of the family disappears for no reason and sleeps somewhere else. Strange…

Winnie gone – instead Willy appeared in the middle of the night and slept in the basket – I have no idea where Joey and Winnie slept this night – it’s getting stranger and stranger…

Emma is still sitting on the oil eggs – it’s the 18th day now! Later in the week a very young pigeon appeared – looking exactly like Jimi – only smaller.

Winnie and Jimi sit in the highest and smallest box and pete sits on top of them. So they sleep. It looks so cute and they are huddled together – apparently the have to warm each other.

Emma still sitting on her stinky(now) eggs (8/13) . This is 1 week overdue now where the babies would hatch normally but Emma seems to be stubborn. Maybe she is glad to have her peace…??

It’s terribly cold now and the temperatures are going down even. If it continues like that we will get frost.

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Pigeon City

From the

Diary as of  9/4 – 9/10/08

I love my pigeon family – so I build them little houses from cardboard. I have a name for their little village: pigeon city. It was so funny and interesting to watch them how they started to investigate their new little houses. Each of them, having a different character, did it in a different manner. Pete checked them out but he refused to sleep inside. Jimi and Winnie are show fighting with dad each evening but then they go inside their little appartments. Sometimes they sleep both in one box.

It was also funny to watch how Emma checked the appartments today – she is still sitting on her fake eggs so she does not need an extra sleeping place – she’s got her pigeon villa.

Willy and Joey appeared in the evenings again. They also checked out the appartments but Pete is chasing them away without mercy although there would be plenty of space. He just cannot stand them being there.

This is Pete (on the pot), Jimi (left), Winnie (right)

And these are Emma’s fake eggs – aren’t they beautiful??

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