May 2008 - Bird Story

Bird Story

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MISSING PIGEONS - lost and found

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Bird Story - May 2008

Runaway boys and blind birds

May 30th 2008 14:26

I apologize to regular readers for not having posted much lately - I have had a major family drama 'time-out' from writing and have only loaded pre-written blogs, and I had not written much ready for this one. (My son ran away to live wild in the mountains for two nights/three days - forgetting to take his wallet and not bothering to leave me a note, & my father who lives overseas had a serious fall…) I hope to be back on track with some proper blogging next week, but I may not take that mountain hike with my camera on Sunday, as planned.

For the time being, the only update I have is that I have noticed Baby1 has a white spot in his eye. I think it may be the pigeon version of a cataract. I intend to see if I can find any information about bird-blindness and eye defects online, or maybe walk up town to the local vet and ask…

Those birds were company for me whilst my son took his 'AWOL exploration' vacation. Baby1 and Bebe2 were on the sill, looking in at me, sensing my concerns… Luckily, I also have a sensitivity with my son - and was able to know he was still ALIVE, if nothing much more!

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Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

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Myna birds and pigeons on the lawn

May 26th 2008 15:05

I managed to catch our friendly myna bird pecking about on the lawn in a couple of photographs. He was after the same food as our friendly visiting flock of city pigeons - stale ginger and peanut cake!

Naturally, already having my camera in hand, I also snapped the pigeons as well. I cannot resist collecting pigeon pictures!!

I had not seen Smokey or Spotty for a couple of days, so I was wondering if maybe they were prEGGnant? Smokey usually hangs out in our yard, even if Spotty does not visit, or at least visits to be fed! However, just as I thought that might be the case, they appeared and started necking on my windowsill, yesterday!

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Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

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Dove Love

May 21st 2008 16:40

When we first fed the birds a few crumbs and the magpies a little cheese, our yard seemed to be filled with turtle-doves & whistling pigeons. We amassed a visitation number close to three dozen of the former and a dozen of the latter, in fact.

Although numbers have greatly fallen during the pigeon era, we can sometimes still amass a dozen or so doves in our back yard. Mostly, they rest on our fence or hills hoist, just settled down, sun-baking in contentment. Sometimes they will munch seed from the privet out back or berberis out front. I managed to grab a shot of a pair of lovers on the dead branch of the poinsettia recently.

Turtle-doves are akin to pigeons in their relationships, both romance and family wise. They like to smooch - or as my son says, preen one another's head and neck region. They generally pair for life, though death of a lover will result in selection of a new partner rather than loneliness. They regurgitate a milk for their young and they like to be lazy - resting on fences or branches and settling down to nod along as life plods on past…

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Looking back over the past two weeks

May 19th 2008 19:50

Taking a look across the past two weeks, other than our well-established abundance of pigeons, we have had quite a variety of visitors in the yard. Although I have been tied to my typing chair for much of the time, due to sinus problems I took a couple of half-days and early nights, allowing me some observation time.

The white-faced herons seem to be regular visitors now, both mother and son have been spotted at least three times in May so far. The galahs are active in the park across the street, and they occasionally fly to the roof next door and have twice been spotted testing out our lawn as a potential feeding ground. There are a pair, or possibly a family, of red-whiskered bulbuls living in the yard behind us. These sometimes enter our yard, perching upon the Moreton Bay Fig tree or Poinsettia. Our overgrown Privet attracts both turtle-dove and currawong, as well as the shrikes. Wagtails have been spotted flitting about and perching on the carport or Hills Hoist. We have also had a couple of visits from a magpie and his partner

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Dusty, Scruff, and a pigeon-wannabe

May 16th 2008 17:59

I managed to capture a fairly good shot of Dusty recently. All the pigeons tend to hunt for dessert-seeds on the lawn after eating their main meal at the dish on the doorstep.

I have also a photograph of Scruff, Speckley-Ribster, and Black Scruff to share. (I apologize for not having mown the lawn prior to taking photos - hee, hee

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Pigeons again!

May 14th 2008 17:40

I recently gave the pigeons a treat when tidying up in the mid-yard. I cut down the seeded ornamental grasses which were cascading onto the lawn, trying to shove the dunny out of its place, and not allowing the nasturtiums to be seen. These seeds are delicious to the pigeon mind, so we soon had our flock munching away happily.

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ANOTHER LOSS

May 9th 2008 16:34

I was turning out my lamp ready to climb into my bed, when I heard a loud THUMP. I thought the lady next door was shooing the pigeons from her windowsill for the night, as sometimes they accumulate on her sills, rather than on ours or our alcoves.

My son shortly came out from his room, to inform me that a white pigeon had flown into his window, then walked down the path towards the other next door. He was not sure if it was one of ours, as it had a wing drooping down

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More pictures of the young heron

May 8th 2008 01:13

Yesterday, my son spotted the heron foraging for bugs in the nasturtiums and ornamental grasses near the dunny - and used it to practice his digital camera movie mode.

It also had a ride on the hills hoist!!

I think this heron likes our messy yard!!

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Non-Pigeon News

May 7th 2008 19:55

Yesterday, one of our old magpies came back to visit us again. Bringing its spouse, the youngster - now adult - sung its way up to the doorstep by our open door where the pigeons were perching and stood staring up - waiting for cheese-human to appear. Sure enough, I appeared - along with a piece of that tasty yellow stuff!

Last week, there was a loud screeching from outside, and then a bang. On investigation I discovered the neighbor trying to shoo away a foursome of cockatoos from her balcony. They flew onto her roof, occasionally swoop-flying at our pigeons. They only stayed around 5 minutes before flying eastward

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Impatience

May 5th 2008 14:56

When Smokey is sitting in the entryway and spots me approach the seed tub, his eyes light up! The other pigeons likewise know where the seed is stored, and if they spot me approaching they will often start to flutter about, fly outside 'ready', or stare hopefully. Smokey flies up from his perch, flutters as close to the door as he can get, and waits with extreme impatience for it to slide open. Once revealed, my wrist is the only perch he will accept - so that he can dip into the seed tub and munch the very best - before the other birds get a beak in on things. Smokey gets so impatient in fact, that sometimes I think he will bump his beak on the glass door in his haste, before it has been slid open.

The second the wrist and seed tub are there, Smokey is attached! Except on a Friday. This smart bird knows that I spend very little time playing music, offering crumbs, etc on Fridays and seems to have learned how often they occur so as to stay away on such times

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The water tub - the latest venue for pigeons

May 2nd 2008 20:32

The water tub is quite a popular hangout for our pigeon tribe. As you can see, it makes a great perch, as well as drinking hole and a bathing pool…

Of course, when the weather is warm but turning towards rain, our pigeons fight over the tub for first turn at the bath, and then hang around the yard sunning themselves and drying off before any possible showers afterwards…