I hardly get to writing these days because I am so very busy with our little ones. In the meanwhile my day begins at 6.30 :eek: when Willy arrives to feed Peppi and Pina (formerly Peppino - but I am sure in the meanwhile that Peppino is a Peppina - therefore we changed it to Pina) I am taking the flowerpot off the hooks and put it on the floor near the balcony door. Willy knew from the beginning where his little ones were and now makes special noises when he wants to feed them. So far so good.
Winnie, the mother, already sits on new eggs (plaster) again which I find is terribly early for a young mother (one year) as she is but what can you do? She is also the mother of Angelo, that incredible pigeon (my avatar) who was not raised on our balcony but somewhere else, probably in March when it was awfully cold still. This was her first child.
Both parents are wonderful parents - although Willy is only 3 months older - he appears to have taken the main part of his duties and feeds the babies exemplary. As you probably remember the attack on the babies, they are kept inside now but the balcony door is open so that the parents have access whenever they want. Only during the night it is closed or for a short time when we are out of the house.
The parents of Willy and Winnie, Emma and Pete, are also breeding on our balcony and Emma sits on plaster eggs currently too. Pete has shown big interest in the babies from the beginning and since a couple of days he is even feeding them when neither Willy nor Winnie are around, i.e. sitting on the eggs. This morning Pete even seemed to quarrel with Willy (his son) who would be allowed to feed the babies. Can you believe that?
Willy of course had first choice (he made it first choice).
Emma and Pete lost their babies this year (we are allowing them to breed only once a year - otherwise... you understand?
) - one was lost during a very cold night
(and I did not have the idea at that point of time to bring them in) and the other was too curious and fell out of the nest and probably damaged his brain or vertebra
.
Pete is very sensitive. It was already a miracle for us that we actually could lure Willy and Winnie to breed on our balcony as well (with a nice nest box
) and finally Pete and Emma even accepted that. Each morning Pete and Willy are quarelling a bit who the chief of the balcony is and Emma and Winnie get their fits from time to time too but in general they can live together very well AND they fight off foreign pigeons in cooperation. This is really funny to watch sometimes. They use real strategies to fight off the "enemy" from two opposite sides!
So back to Pete. He appeared to me a bit depressed the last weeks since he had lost the babies and since we have the babies of Winnie and Willy he is his old self again. Could this really be, that he feels some responsibility for his grandchildren? I have also observed that he is really teaching them, how to pick seeds, to hide when he warns etc.
Did you ever observe such a behaviour? Again - these are not loft pigeons nor pets but ferals on an open balcony - they can fly off whenever they want. There are no cage doors or fences...
I am really confused