Peppi’s first little flight (26 days)

From the

Diary as of  8/13/ – 8/15/09

8/13 What a day – Both, Pete and Emma are feeding now the babies. They were inspecting the area below my desk whether everything is okay and safe for the little ones. Would you believe this? . I have the suspicion that they want to take over our appartment

Peppi tried to showboat today – he wanted to show his father Willy that he can jump into the nest all by himself – this went wrong of course and he landed fully on his nose.

Peppi has 310 gr now and Pina 310 gr as well.

8/14 Peppi and Pina jumped out of their nest all of their own this morning and then stood on the stone that lies on the newspaper right in front of the window like on a little  Mount Everest and were preening 6°clock in the morning. What a view! And how proud they were. You could see this really!

More and more they can eat all alone. And often they are playing with the food – especially the peas – like playing soccer – it looks os funny

And today Peppi even managed to jump back into the nest on his own – what an achievement.

While we were shopping one of the babies took a bath all by him/herself – don’t know who was in the bathbowl or whether both of them were in there…

Jimi was missing since 2 days – today he appeared again – totally hungry – and he ate in a big hurry. Poor little sweetheart – I wished he were here all the time but maybe he has kids on his own. This may be the reason why he has not time any more for a little chat. I wonder whether he will introduce them to us as well. We will see….

Joey was here this morning too – taking breakfast. He was in a hurry as well. He is still moulting but his little head slowly looks pigeon-like again. Before that he looked like a little vulture, half of his neckfeathers were missing.

I always find it so moving that they return again and again and ask for food here. They know quite well where their home is. And I am glad that they are doing so well, looking healthy and happy.

8/14 The babies jumped out of their nest again very early in the morning when the sun was not even up yet. They seem to love these early hours, waiting for the sun to appear just like the adults, who are sitting on the balcony balustrade, preening…

And then it happened: Peppi made his first tiny little flight from my hand. Wow! He is just 26 days old. I carried both little ones on my hand through the appartment. They were looking around very curiously as if they were learning where they were.

Jimi and Joey were missing this morning.

Pete and Emma, the grandparents, feeding their grandchildren -

see also video below:

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Peppi and Pina start to eat on their own (3 weeks) and a new Nest for Emma and Pete

From the

Diary as of  8/10/ – 8/12/09

8/10 Pina and Peppi are now training their wings – they look like real wings in the meanwhile not those scrubby and spiky little things they had before. The difference is remarkable – you can hear the air which is displaced and the result is that of a little ventilator. Amazing..

8/11 In the morning – 6° clock – the little ones begin their day with preening of course. The hanging nest, which is still covered by the black cloth, is wiggling and rocking from their movements. This looks so funny – as if that pot has a life on its own. So I get up quickly and remove the cloth so that they can look out of the window. When Willy arrives and lingers in fron of the balcony door I open the door and put the nest down on the floor so that the babies can jump out of it and get their breakfast from Willy.

They have started to eat on their own. Pina of course  is much quicker than Peppi and she is begging much less than him. Peppi gets often frustrated because of this and gives up on feeding himself very quickly. He is lacking a bit perseverance! On the other hand Peppi is fed by Willy and Winnie much more often – he is begging for food as soon as he sees someone from the family. He is lazy… He even manages to get more from his grandpa than his little sister. Pina has her pride I think and wants to prove that she is grown up. In fact she is much more clever than her brother – hahaha – and although she has not the same strength – she knows to help herself!!
Pina has started to go to the foodhouse on her own now and she is drinking water on her own.

8/12 Most of the time both babies are lying at my feet and napping. They have started to explore more and more of the room and I have to make everything kiddyproof. It is just the same as with human kids. So funny sometimes but also they have nothing in mind than doing nonsense…

I have made a completely new nest for Emma and Pete. It is now in a big bowl – there is no soil in it any more but Seramis on the bottom, then some kitchen paper – so I can clean it if necessary and see much better whether there are any bugs around.  On the paper is a big layer of crude hey and on top of that a thin layer of fine hey. It smells so good anf the pijjies love it.

Peppi begging Winnie for food as usual

Winnie in the foodhouse – Peppi  and Pina watching…

wing muscle training – you can see that there are still a lot of feathers missing underneath the wings…

Peppi is stretching himself to look over the foodhouse wall – maybe there is something special??? 

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Grandpa feeds Grandchildren and the Bastard Pij appears again!! (3 weeks)

From the

Diary as of  8/7 – 8/9/09

8/7 Today was a very exciting day:

Peppi and Pina left the nest (while it was standing on the floor!!) all of their own – they used the  stones which I had placed on the newspaper in order to keep it in place as stairs. They even managed to climb back into the nest via their “stairs”. How clever is that? Peppi was even outside the nest while we went  shopping!

And another highlight: I gave them their first bath. They absolutely loved it and got soaking wet.  So I had to pack them in towels in order to avoid them getting cold and put them afterwards back into the hey – that kept them really warm.

The bathing scene of Peppi was really funny because the silly little bugger thought he could do it outside the bathtub. I had to put him into the water to make him aware that bathing means being IN the water and not outside, even if he moved and behaved like an adult. I documented this whole scene in a little video again:
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Both babies continue their learning process by trying to pick up all kinds of seeds. There seems to be a kind of competition between them because I see them picking at one and the same seed and they look at each other when one manages to actually eat the seed. This way they learn from each other and become mature and self-confident much quicker. That’s another reason why these babies should not grow up alone, as single babies. Peppi even started to drink from the water bowl all of his own. And he is only 18 days old!

Today they begged Emma for food again but she refused.

And another incident: the bastard pij appeared again – Peppi and Pina apparently recognized him from inside the window and started to scream really!!!! I only saw him taking off… what a jerk!

8/8 Today something very strange and very sweet happened: Pete started to feed Peppi – this is amazing. Grandpa feeding grandson!!! And poor little Pina is left behind again as usual in the real world of man! Or she is too proud tobeg for food this way – one way or the other. It is quite obvious – Peppi is the one who screams the loudest so he will get first and more.

Emma has left her plaster egg in the meanwhile and is cuddling with Pete again.
Winnie still sits on her plaster eggs. She hardly feeds the babies – I wonder why. Is she already so fixed on the new generation???? Hm – nischt git…

8/9 Pete is feeding his grandchildren (really both) several times a day now. I hardly can believe this and have never heard of such a behaviour among ferals. But then – who has the opportunity to watch ferals like I do? It is such a gift and such a pleasure. I can only repeat it…

Pete comes into the livingroom just as naturally as Willy, goes straight away to the food house, fills his crop and then starts feeding Peppi and Pina. As long as Willy is not around things are going smooth. When Willy appears Pete turns tail and runs as quickly as he can – remember Willy is also called wild Willy – not without a reason – and Willy gets nuts when he sees Pete feeding his kids as if he was thinking that they were going to be too fat…??? Insteaf he should be grateful that grandpa takes some burden from him. But as I already said – wild Willy is nuts and very jealous.

Peppi in the foreground

Peppi and Pina (background)

a cheeky look from Pina – you can still see where her injuries were

Peppi sitting in front of my tool boxes

Peppi and Pina resting on the floor…

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Begging Grandma for Food and eating on their own (16-17 days)

From the

Diary as of  8/5/ – 8/6/09

8/5 The parents Willy and Winnie are  feeding like crazy now. One could get the impression that they do it every half hour or so which is nonsense of course.  But each time I look towards the babies I see Willy – mostly Willy – feeding them.

Winnie laid  egg #8! in the second small nest beneath the bicycle. Apparently she is competing with Emma. Oh my, we have two egg laying machines now…

8/6 The babies are now 16/17 days old and Winnie tries to lure them already out of the nest! Isn’t this a bit early? My goodness – their childhood is short enough anyway and they had to suffer enough already.

Both babies have started their wing muscle training. They are able to flap their wings each day a bit longer and quicker. It makes a lot of sound – like a group of bats flying somewhere  - and they have started to eat seeds of their own. Doesn’t work yet with everything – they are choosing the small ones but I have seen that they actually managed to swallow them. What progress!!

Today – when Emma came in to go to the foodhouse – she was literally mugged. Both babies begged her for food and Emma was quite irritated about that. It was very funny. And while Emma ate her seeds in the foodhouse the babies watched her closely. The she changed to eat from one of those foodiepots and also was closely observed by the little ones. When Emma flew off again both babies started to pick their own seeds from the foodiepots. How sweet.  I have documented this in this little video:
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But they did not even start to eat on their own but I saw Peppi drink from the water on his own for the first time. What an achievement!!

In the meanwhile Peppi weighs 290 gr and Pina 275 gr. Not bad – isn’t it although they are fed merely by Willy only. Winnie did not feed them once today. She is so busy with her new eggs. Strange behaviour. Poor Willy – all responsibility is on him now. But he loves his little ones – you can see that.

The funny thing is that Willy must accompany everything with pijjie comments, not only when he is feeding. All the time when he is here to feed the babies he grunts and growls as if he were a mad dog. Even when one of the babies sticks his beak into Willy’s beak he does not stop to grunt and growl as if he were a bit nuts. But he IS nuts! I have never heard a pigeon before making these sounds – not pigeon-like at all – he has a very croaky voice although he can coo with wonderful sounds as well…

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Another nearly Attack from the Bastard Pij (12/13 days)

From the

Diary as of  8/2/ – 8/4/09

8/2 The injuries of Pina and Peppi are healing. Still I cannot be sure that everything will be okay. I have a close eye on the little ones. I am extremely alert. How deep may that shock be? Will it be an obstacle for their development. Who knows…

Winnie leaves the babies alone for the first night – she is sitting on the second nest – probably an egg – I don’t know yet. How can she? This is not good but maybe she knows better – I am not sure. The moment chosen is not the best. The babies are now 12 and 13 days old.

Pina and Peppi have started to pick. They imitate their parents but of course they cannot eat yet on their own.

8/3 Winnie sits on an egg which is #7 and Emma has laid another one – egg #28 . She tries to trick me because she is sitting on 3 eggs now – but I realized and removed it!!!!! There will be no oops baby!!

8/4 I do not believe this but there has been another nearly attack!!!!!!!!

You will not believe this but the bastard pij came back today to finish up his job.
I was sitting at the computer and suddenly heard the babies scream. As I knew that they had been fed 5 minutes ago I immediately knew that it could not be one of the parents. Also the screams sounded differently – a high pitched tone, definitely that of fear.

I immediately ran out on the balcony and saw that bully bastard sitting in front of the entry, intending to jump into the nest. I grabbed the water sprayer and gave him a good shot. With a grumpy noise he flew off. I just could have strangled him

You know what – as many personalities pigeons can have, each an individual just like dogs, cats and humans – I believe that there are birds out there who have a very bad character. They are simply mean.

Now I decided to not give this bastard a third chance. I simply took the nest (the planting bowl) inside, put it on some hangers and hung it directly into my big window so that the kiddos can look outside, see the other pigeons fly by and watch all the activities.

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The babies seem to be extremely happy now. They love the soft swinging of the nest and they have started to train their wing muscles now. Everything is so much more interesting for them now. And I can hardly work because I have to watch them all the time – . You cannot imagine what a feeling that is to know that they are safe now.

I showed Willy and Winnie, their parents, where their kiddos were. I put the nest for a short time besides their “feeding house” when I realized that it was time for feeding and believe it or not the parents immediately understood, which means, after feeding themselves, they both fed their babies IN my studio/living room and within the nest.

I have made a little video about this to document what happens here:

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