Hello from Bangkok!

I wouldn't put anything past Henry, maybe he's already got a mate elsewhere!

I read a few days ago about a great racing pigeon who had some illness that had not been diagnosed. He was an asymptomatic carrier, but he infected his babies and his successive mates, most of whom died. I wonder...

Siam Sam wrote:

Another new one has shown up. A male, judging from the size. Has markings very similar to Big Pidgee, the original male who nested on the balcony three years ago with his mate, Little Pidgee. A descendant? Head similar to Henry and Ladyboy's. Speaking of Henry, he's showing no interest in finding another mate. Could be discouraged from them all dying or disappearing.

Well, actually it looks like this new one may be Henry's mate. A little large for a female but certainly smaller than Henry. (Everyone is smaller than Henry.) Or maybe Henry's turned gay. Either way, the new one mentioned above is traveling with Henry, and they always show up together now. Hope he has better luck with this one. Very pretty. Will post photos.

I don't know where Charlie stays at night now, but he's here every day again.

See, I guessed right about Henry, it seems!

And maybe Charlie has established a nest somewhere else. Or maybe he got fed up with your neighbours, lol!

I was cleaning the balcony the other night and found the remnants of a freshly hatched egg. Most of the shell. We don't know if it fell from above or stuck to a bird's foot like has happened before.

We're wondering if Little Squealer is ever going to grow out of squealing. Never saw a pidgee act like this.

Siam Sam wrote:

I was cleaning the balcony the other night and found the remnants of a freshly hatched egg. Most of the shell. We don't know if it fell from above or stuck to a bird's foot like has happened before.

Very likely stuck to the foot of the bird, otherwise there would be splatted egg white and yolk on your balcony too.
That happened to my Hercules once. Piper laid, or rather dropped, an egg from the shelf and it broke on the bottom of the cage. Hercules stepped on it and it stuck. At breakfast time I was rather alarmed at the crazy, foot-shaking dance he was doing... But after a bath, all was well!

Small update. Henry's almost inseparable from his new mate, whom we've named Geri. We recently watched Mike Leigh's Another Year, and the name of the lead female character was Gerri. The wife likes the name, so we decided to use it but in what I believe to be the more traditional spelling of Geri. A beautiful bird. Will have to post photos soon.

Big Red has disappeared, but I'm not sure I suspect fowl (heh) play despite his penchant for misadventure. His visits were starting to become less frequent. Then the last I saw of him was over a week ago. His mate and daughter, Mint and Pinkie, are both coming every day still, and Mint has definitely learned the trick of hopping up into the window to ask for food.

Hi Sam,

Geri sounds lovely! I look forward to seeing a photo of her!

If you're feeding the birds in the evening, that's the time when the males are usually in the nest, unless the food source is so close to the nest that they can come out for a short while to get a meal. Maybe Big Red is sitting on the nest, and it isn't that close to your balcony.

We feed them pretty much all day, although we're cutting back a bit more now, as there are too many again. But many disappear completely by late afternoon, including both Henry and Geri. We think Henry's nest is on a roof in a row of townhouses very close by. The wife thinks she may have seen him over there a couple of times while she was out on the street, and he always flies in that direction when he leaves.

Little Squealer stayed the night last night (Friday night), and he doesn't seem to be sick. Ate food this morning. Maybe something will come of that. Cute little guy. A bit aggressive, so we think it's a male, but awfully small. Not growing at all and still squealing like a stuck pig, although the squealing has toned down just a little.

Little Squealer sounds like a great character!
Usually the males are more outspoken, but one of the small females in my feral flock is famous for being aggressive and grumbling at everyone who approaches her. You wouldn't be surprised to hear we called her Grumpy!

Since at least yesterday, the Small Pretty One and Ladyboy have been going at it like rabbits in the designated sex area. And they're getting kinky too, as she's been the one on top most of the time. Looks like Henry will be getting a new set of grandchildren soon.

Photos soon (I hope), but for now some updates.

We've decided that something must have happened to Big Red. Not seen for more than two weeks now, but his mate Mint and daughter Pinkie come here evry day. Mint always seems like she's watching for him. Poor Big Red. Always prone to misadventure. :(

Henry and Geri are never here at the same time now, so maybe they have eggs somewhere, although we never saw them doing the deed here. But most importantly, Small Pretty One has taken up with a cute little gray. It was just days ago that he and his (now former?) mate Ladyboy were going at it like rabbits. But this is weird: Ladyboy kept insisting on being on top. Small Pretty One kept maneuvering to try to jump up on her, but she kept remaneuvering to where she managed to be on top. We're not sure if this newfound kinkiness on Ladyboy's part has resulted in a break-up (Small Pretty One is a rather old guy after all), or if Small Pretty One has taken a mistress on the side (this is Thailand after all).

it's certainly all happening on your balcony, nothing much changes on ours

Oh my, what a soap opera!
I've heard of hens who alternated with males being on top, but never so persistently! Maybe Ladyboy is, as the name suggests, gender-confused...

I'm sorry about Big Red's absence. Wherever he is, I hope he's alright, or else at peace. Great characters are always sorely missed.

rattyfied wrote:

it's certainly all happening on your balcony, nothing much changes on ours

It's become the neighborhood pub.

And Big Red showed back up yesterday (Monday)! Definitely him. Tail all grown back now. First sighting in 2-1/2 weeks. What does this guy get up to? Mint showed up later, and they were being all affectionate. Glad he's okay. We've also seen one or two new Baby Reds lately, and we figure those are theirs.

Delighted to hear Big Red is back!

Saturday morning here, and a new black-and-white showed up. Young. Black and white in about equal measure, sort of a marble pattern. In fact, we've already started calling her -- for some reason, we think it's a female -- Marble Face. Seems to have folloed Small Pretty One here, so if he's the father, then Ladyboy is the mother. (There's not been enough time for him to have squabs with his new lady.) Incredibly cute, she discovered the water dish, splashed around taking a bath, then lounged over on the green concrete sunning herself dry, slightly kerfluffled out. Small Pretty One did not seem annoyed by her.

There were two new ones actually, the other being a standard gray one, but we think they may be siblings. They seemed to stick together. Could be genes jumping a generation. After a while, it was just the two of them alone out there, so I thought I'd try to slip them a little food. But as careful as I tried to be, opening the door freaked them out completely, and they fled the scene.

But I got pictures of them. Will have to try and upload the photos from my camera this weekend. With the imminent flooding, we may be socked in here, so may have some time.

Hi Sam,

Marble Face sounds lovely! Glad you managed to take some photos -- look forward to seeing them!

A small update as we wait for the floodwaters to arrive. We've stocked up on bird food. Marble Face has decided he -- decided he's a he after he and Charlie started fighting -- likes it here but has stopped the baths. Little Squealer has discovered he can bully Marble Face. Small Pretty One has definitely dumped Ladyboy and taken up with a young gray. And Big Red and Mint are inseparable again after his absence; he comes here with her every day now. Wonder what on earth he gets up to.

Big Red the Unfathomable, lol!

Squeakers are very forceful sometimes, chasing away pigeons twice their size! Little Squealer is sure looking after his interests... should grow up to be a very determined bird, even if not big enough to be an alpha male.

I hope Ladyboy finds a new mate, poor thing!

Still here. The floodwater has not reached central Bangkok yet and may not. Most of Bangkok remains dry. Our normal day-to-day activities do not take me or the wife near where it's flooding anyway, so we haven't any seen anything. The only effects we've seen are shelves being emptied on supermarket shelves, occasional increased difficulty finding a taxi and cars parked along the Expressway near our place. The wife's sister is not so lucky though. She lives outside the city, and her house has been flooded. For now, she's staying in a vacant condo here inside the city that's owned by a cousin.

The pidgees are all fine. But not only have Small Pretty One and Ladyboy broken up, he'll do his angry dance at her and chase her away. I blame ehr sudden kinkiness.

A pretty new one we call Marshmallow has appeared. White with brown markings all over, making her resemble a toasted marshmallow. The markings, if you look closely, are rather reddish brown, about the same shade as Big Red's, so we think she belongs to him and Mint. His looks more red because the markings cover more area.

I'm glad you, your wife and the pijjies are OK, Sam.
I'm, sorry to hear that your wife's sister's home was flooded.
I hope it wasn't damaged too badly and she didn't lose her personal belongings.

Thanks for the update, Sam, I hope you and your wife won't be affected at all, and that life can soon return to normal for those, like your sister-in-law, whose houses got flooded.

Some long-overdue photos.

First, another one back in August of Mint and a tailless Big Red. As you'll see later, his tail has grown back nicely. And here he is again, still tailless but you can't tell (tail?) here, ordering up a late lunch for him and his sweetie. Nowadays, he won't jump up in the window anymore, but Mint will.

Little Squealer flapping away. That's big Henry on the right, along with Black Wing on the leaft and Ladyboy in the middle. And still flaping here. He must have really annoyed everyone. The little guy still stops by some but has cut back a lot.

And Charlie, mid-September. At the end of the last batch of photos I posted in August, I referred to him as something like a "new whitish kid." He's a daily regular now. Dorky little guy.

Little Squealer still doing his flapping thing.

Pinky, daughter of Big Red and Mint. Whiter even than her mother. Her name comes from her pinkish beak.

First look at Henry's new mate, Geri. Note the clown-makeup smear on her moth. It's only on her right side. That's Henry preening, plus Ladyboy. And Henry and Geri again.

And now, Big Red with his brand-new tail, about a month ago. And again. It's grown back in quite nicely.

Zen pidgees. From top: Pinky, Geri and a snoozing Little Squealer.

A cutie named Marble Face, just after a morning bath. And drying out. MF would come by every day but seems to have moved on recently.

And Marshmallow, whom we're pretty sure belongs to Big Red and Mint. And again. Marshmallow also seems to have moved on. So has Specklehead and maybe a couple of others.

There have been some other kids who showed up just once or twice and then did not come back. I wonder what makes some stay and some move on. In the past week, we've seen a pair that we're pretty sure belong to Henry and Geri, as they look like a cross between them -- Geri's neck pattern and a strong Dalmatian body. One keeps returning. And today, a new black one showed up that's a carbon copy of poor little Goofy, who died a few months ago. No idea who that one belongs to.

Great new photos, Sam!
It's nice to be able to put a face to the names!

Thanks. Little Squealer is very small. His squealing and flapping finally started dying down as he got older. (We think he's a he.)

Small Pretty One and Ladyboy seem to be back together, but sometimes he'll still peck at her while they're eating. We think maybe he wants sex.