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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Wally is an incredibly sweet Baby Pigeon… (3 weeks)

From the

Diary as of 5/31/ – 6/5/09

5/31 Emma laid her 23rd egg in another flower pot. I took it away because I found it a bit strange that she laid one while Wally was still so young. This time she did not lay another one.  Strange – normally she always lays 2.

6/1 – 6/4 Jimi did not appear this morning but Joey did. He got his share of corn and seeds. Nothing really special. I am still sad because of Randy.

6/5 Wally is growing fast. He is now 3 weeks old. He is an incredible baby pigeon – he is the sweetest of all – there is no upgrade possible. Each time I look into his nest he looks at me and squeaks and wiggles with his wings. He is never aggressive – as was Willy for example, who always picked at me first and then realized that it was me.  Wally answers when I make  “peep peep” noises and he is so curious. Whenever I take him out of the nest he never seems to be afraid and looks around very curiously. So I assume that he loves being taken out of the nest. He is so alone – no-one is talking to him, no-one playing and he has no-one to have a little quarrel with.

Today I put him in a little box with a towel to keep him warm and put him into the sun for a few moments to warm him up. It is still much too cold for June. He snuggeled into the towel and loved to look around, to see other pigeons fly by. After I put him back into the nest he fell asleep immediately. I really feel sorry for him because he is so alone after his little sibling died. There should always be 2 of them so they can keep themselves warm. Little pigeons love company and don’t like to be alone. Just the same way with humans…

On these photos Wally is 2 weeks old…

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Wally and Randy, the Baby Pigeons are growing fast (1 week)…

From the

Diary as of 5/23/ – 5/26/09

5/23 – 5/24 The little ones are growing fast – you could nearly see it. Randy will get a white cap – you can see that already from the quills.

Angelo is coming now each day and walks into the living room to the feeding box as if he had not done anything else ever. He is really a very clever young pigeon! Amazing how fast he learns.

Because it was so hot today he lay down on the ground of the balcony in the shadow – like a little dog or cat. Being very content hiding from the sun. How sweet!!!

5/26 Heavy thunderstorm this evening – with heavy winds. Emma, Pete and the Willies made it home safely. Erwin saved himself too here and another one of the visitors who often sit here on the balcony in my empty hanging flower pots. They all were quite frightened – you could see that. Head between their shoulders and making themselves as small as possible. All sitting there one beside the other, quietly without any fighting.

Jimi is missing again since 19.5., also Joey did not appear for a couple of days – since 22.5. Wild Willy always chases him away when he tries to get to the food or water bowl. So I suppose he – Joey – has given up for the moment and Jimi as well.

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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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