Angelo playing in the Sandbox and Mr. Black returned

From the

Diary as of 6/19/ – 6/20/09

6/19 Such lovely weather today – very warm – and the pigeons are happy. They do what they love most to do:  flying the whole day – so hardly anyone is appearing on the balcony.

Angelo was such a fun though today. Somehow he loves to be with us when we sit on the balcony. I was on my sunchair and watched Angelo playing in the little sandbox which I always fill with grit so that the piggies can eat those little stones for their digestion. I am buying parrot grit with oyster shells and I know that I probably don’t need to do this because they all can have free access in the wild but never mind.  He “worked” in that bowl like a berserk so that real dustclouds appeared. Was sooo funny to watch how he jerked his little head to and fro in order to find the perfect grain of sand – so it seemed. Very messy but very sweet!

I love this little guy – he is sooo sweet . Especially when he sits in pigeoncity in the long basket, makes his head feathers really plushy – he then looks like a little icebear.

Or when he sits like this, taking a little nap…
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6/20 Mr. Black is here again. You remember – the one with the two spleens: one is always parking one foot beneath the belly and the other one wobbling with his long neck when he gets excited. After all these weeks where he did not appear he immediately knew again where once the “feeding swan” was – on the board directly beneath my window. Amazing!

Jimi appeared this morning too to get some food and especially his sunflower seeds. So cute. It’s the same ritual I am do each morning with Joey – I put the saucer on the balcony balustrade and my hand right and left to it to protect him from disturbances from Pete and Willy who cannot stand that I am feeding the both. Okay, I know, it’s for territorial reasons but I love my old babies as well and they know that this is their home where they can return to any time. And they do.

Today I witnessed another very young pigeon who looks similar to our little angel Angelo but instead of greys and white he had all browns and white. Very beautiful also and I hope to see him again…

Today the weather is absolutely awful – raining the whole day and the piggies are in very bad mood – it’s the same as with humans…

Pete and Willy are continulously chasing off foreign pigeons which is good in one way because otherwise all these are steeling the food  

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Emil – the Homer from Switzerland

From the

Diary as of  6/17 – 6/19/09

6/17 We have a new visitor: Emil from Switzerland. He is a homer pigeon. He has 2 rings on his feet. Angelo brought him. At least so it seemed. He seemed to be exhausted, totally hungry and thirsty. So I put the the feeding saucer in front of him on the balcony balustrade and he immediately began to eat.  Then I got the water bowl, showed him that there was water in it by putting my hand into the water and let it run down from my fingers – he immediately understood, went straight away to the bowl and drank and drank and drank. I already thought he would never stop again. Apparently he was near to starving. I had big sympathy for the little guy. He was quite docile and did not shy away when I stood beside him. I then realized that he had something on the left side of his chest – the feathers were clumped together but I could not see what it was. So I thought I would try to catch him in the next days in order to check this out, after he got used to me a bit more, assuming that he would come back for food and water.

And he did!

6/19 Two days later I really could catch him and check what it was on his chest. Apparently it was a bad injury but it was healing. That’s why the feathers were clunked together. So I let him go again.

Of course he was angry about my catch so he would not come near to me the next day. Obviously he mistrusted me now. Good for him. That would help him to survive. I assume that he got caught by a predator or a big dog because the injury loooked like a bite or he got caught in some trap. I don’t know. But I am sure that injury will heal completely and the little guy will be okay again. In the meanwhile he appears each day on our balcony and takes his food and drink. He seems to feel at home here and we watch him flying around with the other pigeons that live here.

In the meanwhile he trusts me again and takes his seed even from my hand. Apparently he does not resent me any more although he is very careful which is good.

And how we tried to find the owner comes in one of the next posts. It is quite a story – so stay tuned…

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Pete has Diarrhea and Angelo discovered the Basket!

From the

Diary as of  6/10/ – 6/16/09

6/10 Emma has laid egg #24 and Pete has diarrhea. I am a bit worried that he might be sick. After we had two babies who died, my innocence is gone i.e. each time when something looks strange I am worried now. All the time in the past everything was okay and we had not to worry about a thing and now – it’s different. Pete has had diarrhea before – some time ago last year -  it took about a week and then was gone. I think it’s the second or 3rd day now – I did not realize when it actually started.

6/11 Pete still has diarrhea but I think it is nothing really to worry about. His behaviour is as usual, fighting with the foreigners, defending his territory and nest and sitting on the egg when Emma is gone.

6/12 Diarrhea is much better. I think Pete is not really sick – probably it’s a regular infection all pigeons have from time to time. I cannot do anything but cleaning up thoroughly and I am spraying everything with vinegar which is great for disinfection and much healthier than all those chemicals.  Nature cures a lot herself – one should only let her instead of intervening with all that hard chemical stuff. These are feral pigeons – I could not do anything else anyway.

6/13 Emma has a little diarrhea as well – not as bad as Pete – but just a little bit. So I think she’s got the same infection. Btw – she also laid her second egg which is #25! I replaced both eggs by one plaster egg. Winnie is sitting on the other one. Think I have to make some new ones…

6/14 – 6/15 Jimi is missing again – while Joey appears each morning and mostly once more during the day to request his food. I am so glad that he appears now regularlyagain.

Always the same ritual: I call him, put the little saucer in front of him and hold my hands on each side on the balustrade – that hinders Pete and Willy to disturb him and chase him away – so that he can eat quite in peace.

6/16 It is  warm and Angelo finally discovered the basket. I actually do not know why this stupid old basket is such a desired object for all the pigeons so that they really fight for it who’s gona sit in it – LOL. Today it is Angelo’s…

Look at this feisty little cheeky guy sitting on his grandpa’s sleeping place – if he (Pete) only doesn’t realize this – oh my…

and here is the famous basket….

And this is mother Winnie and son Angelo:

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A black Day again – we lost our second Baby Pigeon – Wally!

From the

Diary as of 9/6/09

My heart is aching – WALLY IS ALSO DEAD – he had to be euthanized this morning after he fell out of the nest and apparently damaged his little brain. After calling animal emergency the vet said nothing could be done for him any more and he took him away. The sweetest of all is gone.

I am totally paralyzed. My little darling pigeon is dead. What could I have done? Did I do something wrong? Could he have been saved? The vet was saying something about PMV – the Paramyxovirus but this is bloody nonsense – not within 2 hours.  It is so unfair. I am terribly sad. First Randy and now my sweet Wally. I am crying for these little fellows. I cannot help…

I  did photograph him this morning when he sat on the little platform in front of the nest and 2 hours later – while I was doing laundry – he suddenly lay on the floor on the side and could not stand up any more. So I really cannot tell what had happened. Maybe he banged his little head badly and injured his brain. Even if he could not fly yet – the height was not so big – less than 1 m -  so that he should have survived the fall by flapping his wings. Very strange.

It was simply terrible seeing him moving in cramps in circles. He apparently had lost his orientation completely. I tried to stabilize him, tried to find out whether he had displaced a vertebra but I could not feel anything – but then I am not a doctor.

He could not hold up his head any more. And he cheeped helplessly all the time. Emma and Pete stood beside him, looking at me as if they wanted to say “help him please, help him”.  Emma made strange noises – she really seemed to suffer from the view of her little one. It was so awful. I took the little fellow into my hand and wrapped a little towel around him, put him in a box and covered his little body to calm him down. But he screamed from time to time – maybe he had bad pains. I called the emergency vet immediately – you know the rest of the story. I am devastated.

These are the last pics I shot from Wally on the very same day, 2 hours earlier – he truly does not look sick – does he? I am terribly sad.

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Winnie and Willy “breeding” Plaster Eggs and Wally wiggles

From the

Diary as of 6/6/ – 6/8/09

6/6 Winnie laid egg #3 tonight – I replaced it now by a plaster egg. Willy is sloppy. He often jumps from the egg to fight off the “enemies” (foreign pigeons which do not belong on the balcony in his opinion) and the egg gets cold! I wonder how they both managed to create such a lovely baby pigeon like Angelo when Willy is such a nuisance.

6/7 Winnie laid the second egg now which is #4 – I replaced it also by a plaster egg.

Big hail storm this early evening. Pete jumped into the nest to check on his little Wally and whether he was okay. He was! 5 other pigeons came on our balcony  besides ours – to seek shelter from the hail and heavy rain. So sweet too.

Willy is behaving like crazy whenever foreign pigeons appear. He defends his territory. Sometimes I think he will get a heart attack from all this excitements. He is sometimes quarreling with Pete, having some discussion one-on-one but despite that they seem to come along quite well. Every night Willy sleeps in pigeon city now and Winnie sits on the (plaster) eggs.

6/8 Wally is so sweet: he jumps out of his nest now regularly,  very well observed by Pete or Emma. This evening he was still sitting on the little platform in front of his nest – Emma sitting inside – and when I approached him, “shocked” that this little guy was still not sleeping as little baby birds should do – he immediately jumped into his nest as if he had some bad conscience. So funny – as if he had understoodd each word I was telling him, about that little birdies should sleep and so on.

He alway wiggles his little wings when I come along and look into the nest. He even squeaks very softly when I talk to him. Sooooo sweet. I love him so much!!

This is how it looks like when Pete is watching ME when I am near his little one – puffed up nearly double size – impressive hey?

And this is our beloved Wally – always so curious and not shy at all:

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and then – after all those adventures – sooooo tired….

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