Willy and Winnie introduced their little Son: Angelo

From the

Diary as of 5/18/ – 5/22/09

5/18 This morning Willy and Winnie introduced their son to us at 7:45 in the morning.  We called him immediately Angelo -Wow! the little guy was so recognizable as Willy’s son without  any doubt – totally white head and white wing feathers – amazing. He was soooo beautiful and so incredibly graceful. Instantly I grabbed the camera and made those photos as you can see below.

5/19/ – 5/21 Angelo is coming every day now!
Jimi appears in the morning to get his seeds – his little face is all ruined – probably by his demanding baby mongers or from fighting. I really don’t know.

Winnie laid an egg – # 2 – in the new nest I made for the Willy people – I removed it. Now they are happily courting again.  She regularly seems to lay one egg only! Maybe it’s her youth??

Willy seems to have a competition with Pete. Who can coo the loudest and who will be the chief of the balcony. Ridiculous – as if there wasn’t enough place for half a dozen piggies!
Winnie and Willy are both sleeping on the balcony now! Also Erwin – mostly in the basket on the board.

5/22 Sweet Angelo was here again – he drank water from the bath tub. He was here quite a while and then flew away with uncle Joey! What fun – he such an excellent flyer….

I had Wally on my hand today – so small still – but he seems to be very healthy. He has white claws! Emma is protecting them very much. She comes into the livingroom to get her seeds – as in the past. And then walking off again to do her own business….

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We have Twins!

From the

Diary as of 5/16/ – 5/17/09

5/16 WE HAVE TWINS! You won’t believe this but Wally and Randy – jumped out of their egg shells today, very early in the morning – around 4 °clock the first one and only a few hours later came the second! That’s why we called them twins. Now I have the problem that I do not know who is Wally and who is Randy. We will see in a few days who fits the name best.

Is this happening in pigeon lives that both babies hatch nearly the same time????? I knew it – we have some very special little guys!

AND Jimi is back today. He just appeared and asked to be fed. What a sweetie – he knows where his real home is! I am very relieved that he is doing okay. His beak and his whole little face looks really worn out – apparently he has some begging mouths to feed. It really looks as if some baby beaks are always trying to stick theirs into pappa’s. But it also could be that he is fighting all the time with other pigeon guys. I have seen him once with a “bloody nose” – which means that his beak’s knob was really incrusted with blood. Yet after 2 days theses injuries were healed. Thank heavens.

I really don’t quite get it anyway that “our” little philosopher – as I called him while he was sitting on my easel – has become such a macho and is battling with other guys. He always used to avoid any conflicts and rather flew away.

5/17 Wally and Randy’s second day on this world. Today I watched Pete already feeding them. That’s early. Both seem to be in good shape and already very vivid!!! So sweet both of them!!

And soooooo tiny!

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They are knocking on the Door…

From the

Diary as of 5/9/ – 5/15/09

5/9 -  No-one will believe me – in the meanwhile “our” piggies (Willy, Schlomo, Joey) have following habit:  when they are hungry they look through the window whether someone (of us) is visible, and if yes, they fly or rather jump against the balcony door and scratch with their feet on the glass – as if screaming “I am hungry! feed me!” This is happening ever again and is so funny.  You can even the traces from their feet on the glass (only a bit dirt no scratches) and only those three guys are doing this – not the girls – what does this tell you?

Pete and Emma are not part of this feeding frenzy – they prefer to eat somewhere else or take the few seeds which I throw into the nest. Apparently they are fed up by the quarreling and fighting and want to have their peace. They don’t want to lose their dignity! Understandable??????

5/9 – 5/14 – Jimi is missing since a couple of days. He does not appear at the breakfast feeding. I thinks he’s got a new girlfriend or Hillary is taking care for little ones. I really don’t know where he is nor what happened to her.

Schlomo and his wife are behaving very aggressive at the moment, want to be fed every hour or so and are fighting a lot with “our” kiddos and Pete! I have to chase them away from time to time because they eat everything that they can find and “our” piggies don’t get anything anymore. Probably they have to feed babies as well.

Therefore I decided to make a kind of foodhouse from a box so that “our” pigeons can eat in peace because it is much easier to defend the entrance to the bowl with the seeds (see photo with Willy below)

5/15 - Since yesterday Joey does not appear at breakfast either. And Jimi is still missing! Maybe Joey has finally found someone – I have no clue what is happening here. And as usual I am a bit worried. We care for “our” pigeons as if they were our pets…

Schlomo and Schlomskaja are behaving better – maybe it’s the bad weather, cold and wet at the moment which drives them crazy. If humans are having a bad mood why not the birds?

I also made a kind of private separée for Willy and Winnie with a larger box above a bowl for plants which I filled with soil and bark pieces and some straw. I realized that they love to nest in the straw which can be easily taken away for cleaning purposes if necessary.

You must admit that it does look neat – doesn’t it? This is proud Willy examining his new house.

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Schlomskaja is back and we have a new Sleeper in Pigeoncity: Erwin

From the

Diary as of 5/1/ – 5/7/09

5/1 – 5/6 All our balcony piggies have become very cheeky and know exactly how to behave in order to get a snack. In the meanwhile they jump – feet first – at the window, flap their wings – looks as if  a little dog is begging for food, standing on his hind legs, wiggling his tail and scratching with his paws. Oh my – the next time I think -  they are going to make noises and start whimpering…

Most of the time they are very patient in the morning, wait on the balustrade until I lie on the floor before the open balcony door (to make myself a little bit comfortable too) and feed them by hand. They know exactly that I am going to clean their mess (poop) mfirst and then they get their seeds, peas, lentils, corn, wheat, sometime a bit  rice, pearl barleys. They have to understand and they do (my suspicion).

Also we have a new visitor/sleeper in pigeoncity: little Erwin. Jimi no longer sleeps on the balcony during the night – instead the new little visitor took over Jimi’s place. He’s a dark pigeon, with some fluffy feathers always sticking out of his back. The strange thing is he never comes for feeding – he just wants to sleep in pigeoncity.

5/7 Schlomskaja is here  again! Apparently she has been sitting on eggs and now they have squabs somewere. Both, Schlomo and Schlomskaja, are very hungry all the time – no wonder when you have to feed babies who are always begging for food.

You see the white little fluffy feathers that stick out of his back?

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Pete’s 4 kiddos eating from my hand – peacefully together

From the

Diary as of 4/28/ – 4/30/09

4/28 Today they were bathing like crazy again – even in the drinking pot which I had to refill 3 times. There was a funny scene with Schlomo and another dark pigeon which so much wanted to take a bath in the drinking pot as well. S/he was begging Schlomo with that wiggling of the wings, running in circles around the drinking bowl, jumping from foot on the other like dancing, only to motivate Schlomo to leave the bowl.  It was so sweet and Schlomo of course was stubborn.

I also saw a pigeon looking like Hillary but I am not sure whether she was the one – I doubt it.

A lot of dark youngsters came visiting pigeon city today – it looked like a youngster’s meeting club….

4/29 No-one is going to believe this, but all 4 kiddos were eating from my hand this morning – 4 little heads popping into my half open hand to catch the goodies:  peas, lentils, sweet corn, wheat and sunflower seeds.

The funny thing was, when they ate from my hand they didn’t fight at all – if I had put a little bowl on the floor,  they would have started fighting again, so jealous about food they are. You would think that they are the worst enemies – especially Willy and Jimi…

4/30 Emma has laid her second egg tonight  – #22 – I will let them hatch this time – I am very curious what comes out this time – new shower caps????

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