Hello from Bangkok!

That is really cool that Kid is eating out of your hand. I love it when they do that. I'll be looking forward to the pictures.

Take care of yourself and stay safe.

Thanks for the update, Sam.
I love it that The Kid ate out of your, and your wife's, hand.
Will be looking forward to the pictures. :Yes:

As promised, new photos!

Maggie and Henry. Maggie looks like a normal pidgee, but Henry just looks like a stuffed doll, both in photos and in person. A really beautiful bird.

Maggie gets comfortable inside the flower box. Note that she's on one leg. We had hoped this meant they might build a nest there, but no.

Maggie and a little guy, one of the Eurasian tree sparrows that have taken to stopping by.

Maggie snoozing, on one leg on the edge of the flower box.

Henry eating.

Finally we have Henry Jr., on the rail. Note the extra blackness on the throat. And you cannot see it here, but this one's right wing is pure right. If you look at the previous photo, of Henry, you can see his right wing is white with a dark lining, but not Junior's. Junior's left wing does have a pattern, though, as you'll see shortly.

And now what you've all been waiting for: Me feeding the Kid. Henry's looking slightly aghast, Maggie seems to be thinking about it; we're fairly sure they are the parents, even though Henry chases the two younger ones away, especially Junior.

Still feeding the Kid. Maggie looks really interested, but she just could not bring herself to do it. This is as close as she dared come.

Henry Jr. in our dining-room window. You can see the design on his -- or her -- left wing here, similar to Henry's. Less black on top of the head, too.

We think Henry Jr. must be the younger sibling, because the Kid seems more confident, and Junior has this really cute way of flying, like a novice. For some reason Henry REALLY does not want Junior here. When he chases the Kid, it's more half-hearted, but he really goes after Junior. Maybe annoyed because the squabs followed him and discovered this daytime hideaway?

That new birdfood I mentioned, the stuff with the corn in it, we'll have to stop using after we finish this bag. (In the photo above of Henry eating, the other, regular birdseed is shown, not this corn variety. But that is what the Kid is eating out of my hand.) Seems there are these little bugs that keep appearing in it! They're of the same sort that commonly appears in bags of rice. They must incubate among the grain.

Well the pictures are just wonderful...my favorite, of course, you hand feeding. They look so shy. That's a Pigeon age I enjoy the most.

The food...bugs ...can you take it back?

I really appreciate you taking the time to share the pictures with us. That's a beautiful little flock.

Thanks!

But take the food back? Nah, they would not understand why I would object to the bugs. After all, they do even appear in the rice for humans if it's not consumed quickly enough. For birds? More proof of how weird foreigners are.

Thanks for posting the pictures, they're brilliant!
I wonder how long will it take for Maggie and the others to eat out of your hand, now The Kid has started a precedent.

Shame about the bugs, but I see what you mean.

OK what am I doing wrong?
I click on each new picture link and Maggie and Henry's link keeps coming up. Or at least the pictures in their first link come up.
I can't see any other pictures.

Fancyfeathers wrote:

OK what am I doing wrong?
I click on each new picture link and Maggie and Henry's link keeps coming up. Or at least the pictures in their first link come up.
I can't see any other pictures.

That's very strange. I just clicked on a couple of them at random, and the correct photos come up.

If nothing else, you should see "< prev #42 of 50 next >" just above the photo. If you click on Next, it will hopefully take you to the next one.

Thanks, Sam.
I closed out of everything and logged back on and the different photos are there.
I've had to do that with other things I was working on.

At any rate, I love the photos.
Thanks for posting them.

We are absolutely convinced the Kid and Junior are siblings. They act the part. Junior's disappeared again though, but the Kid keeps coming around and is pretty bold. This one has some guts to her. She'll even fly to the dining-room window to stare in at us if we're not forthcoming with food. And she'll still eat out of our hands, although she remains skittish.

Henry and Maggie are back to "doing it" pretty regularly and are often here together again. She must not have laid new eggs yet wherever their nest is.

Only 2-1/2 weeks until we leave. I'm already starting to worry about how disappointed Henry and Maggie will be. Hope they're still around when we return.

I hope they are there when you return too.

Junior showed up again recently, and so did another small white one! Now we don't know who belongs to whom.

Will be thinking positive thoughts that Henry and Maggie are around when you return, Sam.

Siam Sam wrote:

Junior showed up again recently, and so did another small white one!
Now we don't know who belongs to whom.

After a while it gets like that. :Yes:

I guess the Kid is getting older and wiser, because she's stopped hand-feeding. Won't come that close now. Has lost her innocence.

That new white one has not returned, but one did stop by the other day that looked black and white in roughly equal measures. Just saw it the one time, though.

Henry Jr stops by more often and is definitely a male. He's started doing Angry Dances against other pigeons and seems to consider this his place now. Has even pecked at a couple. But for some reason, Henry himself positively HATES Junior, will become enraged at his sight.

Siam Sam wrote:

I guess the Kid is getting older and wiser, because she's stopped hand-feeding. Won't come that close now. Has lost her innocence.

That new white one has not returned, but one did stop by the other day that looked black and white in roughly equal measures. Just saw it the one time, though.

Henry Jr stops by more often and is definitely a male. He's started doing Angry Dances against other pigeons and seems to consider this his place now. Has even pecked at a couple.
But for some reason, Henry himself positively HATES Junior, will become enraged at his sight.

There are some like that and it seems Henry is one of them. :For Shame:
But we still love him and love hearing updates about him.

A few more photos before we head out of here this weekend. Again, we are 99.99% certain that Henry Jr. and the Kid are brother/sister and 95% certain that Henry and Maggie are the parents.

Sunday, March 14
Mrs. Siam Sam hand-feeds the Kid. This is when we could still coax the Kid into doing this. She won't come close now. Must have figured out it's possibly not a good idea to get very close to humans.


Sunday, March 28
Henry Jr. and the Kid lounging on the window frames.

And with Maggie, who is probably their mother and here is practicing her ballet. We expect they'll all be spending a lot more time over there on the mansion grounds while we're away.


Wednesday, March 31
The Kid and Henry Jr. hangin'. And then Junior gets comfy while the Kid starts checking me out.


Henry still comes around of course, but I have no new interesting shots of him. But he remains master of the balcony. We're getting a little too many pidgees coming around again, and Henry spends a lot of his time running around and chasing them away. As much as we'll miss Henry and Maggie -- and even Junior and the Kid -- we're hoping many of the regular crew will take the next few weeks as a cue to go out into the world. Blackfoot too, he -- and he's a he for sure, as we've seen him do the male puffing out of the throat -- just likes to lounge around in the tree pots, hoping to eat whatever leftovers Henry leaves behind. The Pretty One acts the big boss when Henry's not around but gets chased off by Henry when he returns. Henry Jr. acts the big boss when Henry and the Pretty One are both gone.

Well, we're heading out tomorrow (Saturday). We'll see if Henry's still here when we return. Thanks for everyone's kind comments throughout this thread.

See you in a few!

Thanks for the update and photos, Sam.

Siam Sam wrote:

Well, we're heading out tomorrow (Saturday). We'll see if Henry's still here when we return. Thanks for everyone's kind comments throughout this thread.

See you in a few!

Wishing you and your wife a safe journey, Sam.

We will miss you and your updates, but will be looking forward to hearing how your trip went.
I will be thinking positive thoughts that Henry, Maggie and the crew stay safe during your absense.

And we're back! Got in late Tuesday night. A sad scene of on the balcony: Empty water dish and little-enough birdshit that we figured the pigeons may have stopped coming around. The morning we left, we dumped a bunch of food out there for Henry, who was gobbling it up. He must have thought life was so good. Then we disappeared. I wonder how often he and Maggie stopped by to check before finally giving up.

On Wednesday, saw a couple of pidgees in the morning: one of the two Pretty Ones and an indeterminate gray one.

Then while cleaning the balcony in the afternoon, I may have spotted Maggie far over on the window frames, along with what looked to be Junior.

And then finally today (Thursday), around lunchtime, Henry appeared! He looked hopeful. Fed him and he ate it all up. I'm wondering now if it was Junior or Henry himself I saw yesterday. But Henry knows we're back now, and we're going to try to keep the feeding very low-key, so we don't end up with an unmanageable flock again.

The trip was good. Funny thing is we saw only two or three pigeons in Hanoi, then not a single one again until Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon. Plenty there around Notre Dame Cathedral and especially in one small street, where someone had put out flat baskets of rice for them. Will try to post some of their photos. In that side street, the pidgees were roosting in the trees, which we hadn't seen before.

Welcome back.
That's very sad about your balcony flock. I hope they are all OK.
You know how we love pictures. Odd you didn't see many pigeons on your trip. I wonder what could have happened to them...or maybe I shouldn't.

Welcome back, Sam. It's great to hear from you and appreciate your update.

I'm so glad Henry returned. I hope you soon see Maggie as well.

Yes indeed, we would love to see some photos from your trip. :Yes:

Thanks! Good to be back despite the rioting and protests Bangkok seems rife with these days. (25 killed in a clash between protesters and military while we were away, grenade attacks on a main road the other night killing one more).

It's actually good most of the balcony flock left, as they were just getting to be too much to handle. Our neighbors would no doubt have caught on to us before long. We've seen a couple of the regulars since returning, but we're trying to limit the feeding to only Henry -- and Maggie, if she'll ever show up again -- but while the couple others have been cleaning up Henry's leftovers, it's still manageable.

We were surprised about the lack of pigeons in Vietnam, too. I ddid speculate they might be eating them -- even in Bangkok, you can find pigeon on the menu of some Chinese restaurants (but the Thais don't seem to eat them ). Something like that would only be in places geared to locals, not tourists, so we didn't see any offered on the menu.

Will try to upload photos this weekend, but as you know by now, I can be awfully slow about that.

Take care of yourself and stay safe.
I'll be looking forward to the pictures.

I am so sorry to hear about what's going on, Sam.
I hope you and your wife stay safe.

Will be keeping an eye out for your update photos.