Emma eats 4 sunflower hearts from my Hand (4 weeks)

From the

Diary as of  8/18 – 8/19/09

8/18 A milestone in history! After half a year of trying and being veeeeeeery patient the miracle happened:  Emma ate 4 sunflower hearts from my hand! She danced around my hand which was lying on the balcony balustrade – I nearly got a sleepy arm – she finally took all her courage and picked up 4 sunflower hearts. I think the barrier is broken!

Peppi and Pina are so sweet – they are doing flying exercises again. Now they can fly from 1 m high to the ground now. They are a little more than 4 weeks old now.

Pina was on the doorstep of the balcony door today, looking outside but she did not dare to really go outside yet. I am glad that she is so cautious. Their own free life comes early enough… – too early for my taste.

Today I put the green bathtub on the balustrade – oh my how the pijjies loved this again!

8/19 The babies took a bath today – in the large green bowl that the adults are normally using. They really splashed around – in my studio – leaving a lot of water on my balcony door and on the carpet. But who cares…. It was such a fun to watch them having their fun.

Peppi and Pina, both can fly up – at least for some small distance. This is the beginning of their real life. Peppi and Pina both flew from my hand and landed safely – which means they can land without using their nose for braking. Peppi flew up on the table and the first thing he did was knocking over the little foodie pots so that everything got spilled. Silly silly silly – the only thing missing was him making a face at me!!

Peppi is a typical male teenager – sometimes he is aggressive and starts fighting with my finger, sometimes he is such a sweetie. He is easily insulted especially when he thinks that I am nicer to Pina. He becomes soooo jealous. He then even rejects taking sunflower hearts! Silly him sulking. Pina is addicted to sunflower hearts. I have to be careful – I think she would feed on them until she would burst.

We can go to the circus: Pina is eating sunflower hearts from my mouth!! This means I am taking a sunflower seed between my teeth or lips and she is picking them directly from there. How about that?

Hubert, the homer  is still here! He knows where the food is. Very sweet. I think he is getting along very well. I wonder how long he will be around. He is really a very sweet homer, very gentle.

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Here is another video – both were about 3 weeks old then – I did not want to hold back:  Everything from a little Pigeon’s Perspective – I hope you have your fun with this:
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I have also quite a few videos from their bathing fun – have to work on those videos first and will show them later.

Here are a few pics from Pina and Peppi  – they look quite grown up already – like real pijjies  :

Pina in front of my toolbox

Peppi in front of my toolbox

one of my most favourite photos: both sleeping on my printer

and here you can see how ragged Pina’s little head (lft) still looks like after the attack – some feathers are not growing yet

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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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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Bad Day – the Chase begins…

From the

Diary as of 7/6 – 7/8/2008

Today Emma and Pete decided to drive the youngsters out of the pigeon castle – Willy and Joey have to sleep somewhere else and not on their glasses any more. I am sad. But I assume that’s the way life goes and completely natural. Despite that I am sad and I worry about the kiddos. Are they really ready to live on their own already? And are they coming back? I am feeling as if they were my own kids that have left home. Geeez – I must be crazy – it’s only some damn stupid pigeons but in the meanwhile I feel about them as if they were pets

And the next days always the same happens:

Willy and Joey are chased away by both parents vigorously now when they try to land on the balcony. This can last up to an hour or even more with some pauses in between where the kiddos try to land and are then chased away so that the feathers are flying. I am really worried and fear that they hurt themselves.

In some way it is interesting to watch how this happens: Pete runs on the balustrade after them – mostly it is Willy whom he is chasing – he lifts one of his wings and then he slaps with it with a real loud noise. It’s really like a nasty person slapping someone. And each evening this happens the same way when they try to occupy their sleeping places – without success. When the chase is on, you can hear wild flapping of wings with a lot of noise each evening on the balcony. Sometimes they get so mad at each other that they are fighting on the sideboard, their beaks jammed in each other’s face and flapping wildly with the wings. Even spraying them with water does not end the fight sometimes.

Gladly up till today none of the crazy pigeons got hurt so I think it’s somehow okay. But it all costs them a lot of energy. And I will have to think about an alternative how I could avoid those terrible fights. It’s getting on my nerves and I am always afraid that they will hurt each other one day.

The funny thing is that both kiddos gain power through these fights. Perhaps this is a necessary process. From day to day they are less afraid of their father and sometimes I laugh loud when they trick him. They really do this: one diverts his attention and of course gets chased while the other one tries to reach their beloved sleeping places on the board. But this of course does not work for long because the mother chases them as well.

Despite all this fighting during the day sometimes too Willy and Joey sneak in from time to time and I can give them some of their beloved sunflower seeds. Together we can trick ol’ Pete and his nasty wife!!!!

In the meanwhile they have learned to follow the noise I am making with a little plastic bowl that has a red cover and they have learned to trust me, while I am standing at the balustrade to pick their seeds directly from that little bowl that I am holding in my hands. So they still come to get their goodies.

Especially towards evening time Pete and Emma sit like vultures on the glasses where the kiddos used to sleep in order to protect their area. And oh boy – if they dare to appear then the wild chase is on again.

Sometimes Pete gets tired chasing the youngsters but Emma especially is a real bitch – each time she gets furious when Joey or Willy appear. I wonder what will happen when the new kiddos are grown up????

That will be very interesting.

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Winnie and Jimi (the new babies) are growing fast. Today I put a piece of cartonage into the flower pot in order to hinder them from falling out of the nest when they begin to flap their wings and trying to go on adventurous tours. I think it won’t take very long for that. Also that piece of cardboard keeps them much warmer – the nights are quite cold at the moment and they are huddled together often.

Btw – I also observed a different behaviour of the parents while feeding: unlike in spring both parents are feeding directly one after the other. I wonder whether this is an improved behaviour or not. I don’t know…

Winnie and Jimi after 9/10 days:

Btw – that pink naked part to be seen at the beginning of the little video is Jimi’s bare leg…