Emma has laid new Eggs again but sits on Plaster…

From the

Diary as of 2/1/ – 2/8/09

2/1/09 Emma has laid a new egg after she moved into pigeon villa #2.  Oh yes – remember -  “our” luxury pigeons have two villas.  Maybe she came to the conclusion that the new pigeon villa will be a bigger success regarding the potential hatchlings. Poor Emma will not know that I am going to replace the eggs again with the plaster eggs after she has laid the second. (scroll down to see photos in the last post)

It is still bitterly cold – although it is rather the wind that lets you feel as if we had temperatures below -15° C. In fact it is only around -2 till -4. When is spring finally coming?

2/4/09 Emma has laid her 2. egg! This morning I replaced them with the plaster eggs. She accepted them immediately after a little protest while I grabbed the eggs from beneath her belly. She is a very forgiving little sweety. Alays. If I only could spare her those egg laying – it must be such a heavy job to press these huge eggs out of her little a..  Sometimes you can even see that the eggs are a bit covered by blood. So it must hurt – I suppose.

2/8/09 The weather has become surprisingly nice and mild. So it is time for big bathing day! I put out 2 bath tubs now so that they stop to fight for a place – Pete cannot control both green bowls at the same time although he tries his best by jumping out of the one in order to jump into the next and vice versa. It is sooooo funny to watch them. I hardly can work because I have to watch all the time…

Here’s part of the gang waiting for the bath tub:

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Bad Days…

From the

Diary as of 1/9/ – 1/31/09

1/17 Bad day – Mom died (my mom)

1/19 – 1/25/09 In my hometown. Preparing things.

1/26 – 1/29/09 It is cold again although we thought winter might go away now after it was relatively mild in my  hometown.  But the temperatures dropped again severly and it started to snow again.

So the breakfast ritual continues. The pigeons need their sunflower seeds more than ever  each morning again to give them the energy to cope with these cold days.

And again it is so wonderful to have Willy and Winnie “taking their seat” each morning, while I am standing at the balustrade with the plates full of seeds. They always wait for me although they could easily take it by themselves. Apparently they want to have social contact – it’s so sweet. And it is somehow a comfort for me, being in grief because of my Mom. Animals always seem to have a certain intuition when things are wrong.

1/30 – 1/31/09 Pete has started to shift around building material (which means the dry leaves and little sticks from my plants which I do not throw away any more but collect in a box on the balcony so that Pete can follow his natural talent of a craftsman.

It is so funny to watch him work like crazy. One piece after another is being carried from one villa to the other, from the box into the villa. And then all those sticks and dry leaves are thoroughly ordered by Emma, building a real nest – not as neat as those of other birds but for a pigeon – well, that’s the best I think. They are really trying hard.

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Meetings in Cold weather…

From the

Diary as of 1/9/ – 1/16/09

It is still very cold and it is fun to watch who is coming with whom:

there are Mr. and Mrs. Smith, two very dark pigeons who looks abslutely similar, only the size is different. They are a bit bossy and self-assured.  Mr.Smith is fighting with Pete from time to time but in the end Pete is always defending his home!

Then there is Mrs. White Stocking and Mr. White Socks, also 2 pigeons that look similar – with a very beautiful and elegant pattern. You will see a couple of photos below.

Then there is a new one – Smoky – who’s feathers are somewhat brownish on her chest – I am sure she is a girl, simply because she is quite small, a little bit cheeky and Pete is courting her. He does not court any males!

Then there are Mr. and Mrs. Jones, he looks like Mr. Smith, she is a checkered one. Not so bossy like Mr. Smith but rather shy.

Then of course  we have Mr. Black and Igi, the beautiful back pigeon and a nice checkered one – Igi is the replacement of Hillary, who is the girlfriend of our Jimi, as you know.

And finally there is Mr. Schlomo and Mrs. Schlomskaja, grey pigeons which look like our Jimi but are different of course. Of course there is no-one like Jimi!

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Mrs. Smith

Mr. Smith

Mr. Schlomo

Mr. Schlomo and Mrs. Schlomskaja

Mr. Schlomo and Mrs. Schlomskaja and Mr. White Socks

Mrs. Schlomskaja with mouth full

“Our” Joey

Joey – dancing – isn’t he sweet?

This is lovely Mr. White Socks

Now look at these feathers – aren’t they extraordinary?

14 pigeons on the balcony playing…

From the

Diary as of 1/8/ 09

It is awfully cold:  -9 °C – but all were here, Willy and Winnie, Jimi and Hillary, Schlomo and Schlomska, Mr. Black and his girlfriend Igi and all the others.

In the meanwhile we have sometimes up to 14 piggies on the balcony because they desperately need good food and even more important – water. I have two drinking pots at different places on the balcony and they use it really frequently. You would not believe how much they drink especially druring this cold weather! Every couple of hours I have to refresh the water – which means I put hot water in because the water freezes again in about 3 hours. You would not believe how much they love to drink the hot water – it seems to be like hot soup to them. I have also watched them eating snow when they cannot reach water.

Today they are using the balcony as a playing ground again! It is so much fun to watch them how they love huffing pete. The old fool is always the sucker because he does not realize that the others trick him. There are sometimes 5-6 pigeons running after one another from one side of the balustrade to other and then back again. This can happen a couple of times right after another.

Then they try to climb on the flower pots or they are chasing themselves around in a circle. It is very funny and reminds of kids playing in the backyard.

Here are a couple of photo of Jimi, Hillary and Joey – they re always here – no matter what temperature or weather…

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It is -7°C and they are taking a Bath!

From the

Diary as of 1/1/ – 1/7/09

We have a new visitor:  Smoky – it’s the smallest pigeon right now – with bronwish feathers on her chest – I assume it’s a girl. In the meanwhile I am quite confident who’s girl and who’s boy. You can watch this from how the older ones – especially Pete is chasing them. He really chases off the boys – to the girls he sometimes turns a blind eye. and of course their behaviour is completely different.

1/2/09 Emma laid a new egg. I am waiting for the second one until I replace them with the plaster eggs again.

1/4/09 Emma laid her second  egg (16 eggs since March 2008)

1/5/09 Willy and Winnie appear together again – apparently it has not worked – their first breeding – either they lost their eggs, or the nest – I cannot say.

1/7/09 It’s -7°C and I discovered that the pigeons use their drinking pot – which is a little plastic bowl with a diameter of about 10 inches – as a bath tub. Wow!!! So I decided to put out their real one – the big green plastic bowl. I put it on the balustrade – and you won’t believe it – but they were queued up to get into the bath.

Some time later I saw Mr. Black with totally frozen feathers on his chest. First I thought he was dirty again, covered with poop as he was during the last days,  but he must have used the bath and then the feathers froze. Now he looked like a little porcupine – all those feather stuck together and were standin’ off like spines! Looked so funny!!

Apparently this did not do any harm to him because today he looked beautiful and well cleaned as ever.

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After the bathing orgy the balustrade was covered with ice and it was fun to watch how the pigeons used it for ” ice scating”. Unfortunately I have no video about this – it was soo funny to watch them slipping on the ice and landing on their little bums. Apparently they had their fun with this and I nearly p….. into my pants laughing.

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