We've been watching flight lessons on and off all week long. It's been amazing---the mom and dad pigeons have been arriving every morning before 7, enticing the "babies" onto the railing and convincing them to test their wings. (I've never thought about it before, but learning to fly is kind of scary. They've been on my terrace all of this time, and now just have to hop off and flap? Kind of crazy.)
Anyway, this afternoon when I went outside to try to bully them out of here check on them, only the younger baby was there! And when (s)he saw me, she fluttered up onto the railing.
and then . . .
Kind of amazing, actually.
My face definitely lit up behind the camera as I took that picture. A bizarre mix of pride and smug get-off-my-porchness. I ran back inside and said "They're gone! They flew away! I even saw one fly! I think they're really getting ready to leave!"
And then, this evening:
Look at those smug faces.
The younger one is on the left, the older on the right.
Sigh.
They don't like me (and I think they know the feeling is mutual) but they couldn't fly away when I went out there tonight. They seemed unable to leave the balcony, which lead me to google investigate pigeons and night vision, and it seems like they can't see so well at night.
My flash probably wasn't helping. Oops.
I have hope that the end is in sight, though. Watching one of them fly away was pretty amazing . . . inspiring, even, if one could be inspired by a stupid dirty pigeon. They aren't that smart, and they aren't very brave. Their whole world was a corner of our cement terrace, mostly under a blue plastic tarp. With only a few days worth of nudging and coersion from their parents, they literally made a huge leap of faith.
When Mama Pigeon (MP) laid eggs on our terrace, I was all excited with the nerdy science teacher hope for watching an egg hatch, and with the nerdy zoologist hope of showing my friends & family how weird looking baby pigeons are.
When the first week was done, I remembered something . . .
. . . I hate birds.
I hate you, birds.
Well, that's not totally true. I like birds in nature (or at the zoo). I like birds from far away. But birds (in my humble opinion) are terrible pets. They are not fun to own or care for. They are noisy. They eat constantly. And, they are disgustingly dirty creatures.
Mama Pigeon is pretty dumb, even by bird standards (ok, that's just not fair. Some birds are actually very smart, like crows. Crows are super smart.). She made a nest on a cement floor. Baby birds instinctively will back their little bird butts up to the edge of the nest and poop, so that the poop falls away from the nest and the nest stays clean. When the mama bird decides to lay the eggs flat on a cement floor, there's no way to keep the "nest" clean.
So, after the first week things took a turn towards "cesspool", and I had 2 options:
1. Leave everything alone. Nature would take it's course, for better or worse.
2. Start cleaning out the bird's nest on a daily basis.
Now, option 1 could result in deaths on the terrace. Even worse, it could result in the birds not growing in their feathers properly, which means that they would never fly away. I wasn't a fan of these possibilities, so now I'm cleaning up after 2 ridiculous pigeons every day.
And are they grateful? Not even a little. The younger one is a wimp and cries when I move him (or her) and the older one attacks:
You can tell this video is 1-2 weeks old, because I'm giggling. (and they're still pretty small). When I'm out there now, I just mutter at them.
Allegedly, they're about 1-2 weeks out from starting to fly. I'm waiting with bated breath.
I'm only sad because you're still here, giant baby pigeons.
One of the pigeon chicks is 1 week old today (the lazier one will be one week old tomorrow). Here's a glimpse into pigeon growth & development in the first week:
Day 1:
Tiny enough to fit in an egg, with my rings
Day 2:
The lazy baby hatched, too!
Day 3:
Still little enough to fit on my lens cap
Day 4:
Two chick butts sticking out from under MP
See the first hints of grey by the shoulder blade? Grey feathers are soon to come
Day 5:
Maya comes to meet the pigeons . . . which MP does not like:
Hrmphh. I'm going to wait over here.
Mama! There's a pigeon over there!
The yellow baby feathers are getting more and more sparse, and I see grey down the wings and on the chest now. And their eyes are open!
Maya: There are baby birds! Right over there!
Parker: I wish I could see :(
Day 7: (That's today)
Look at the little flight feathers coming in, all down the wing!
See my engagement ring? (Directly in front of the bird on your right). Man, birds grow fast!
Our first ever weekend road trip since Maya was born, and Maya's first hotel stay. On Friday night we drove to my sister's place, where Maya ran (and fell) in the yard with her cousins nonstop for 4 hours straight. I would have taken pictures, but I don't think it would have been physically possible to get all of the kids in the same frame anyway . . . and I was too busy stuffing myself with lobster rolls and homemade desserts to try :) The running may have overtired her a bit, as she cried hysterically for most of the remaining drive to the hotel.
We were a little nervous about her sleeping abilities in hotel room port-a-crib (pack n play), but she was super psyched to see a "special crib":
My own room?!? And a special crib?!? This is fantastic!
Saturday morning we went over to an old friend's house for a brunch playdate . . . which sounds normal enough. Except for the fact that we've never met before. Or spoken on the phone. She's a friend that I "met" online---a few years back, and have since traded email, chatted online, etc.
I'm betting that half of the people reading this are thinking "Cool! I wish I could meet up with some of my online friends!" and the other half are thinking "Isn't talking to strangers on the internet an activity reserved for homicidal maniacs and pedophiles?"
But really, I'm lucky enough to have "met" a bunch of amazing online friends (remember those awesome cardboard party animals? They came from one. And when we needed extra scrabble tiles to add Parker's name to Dave's scrabble plaque another internet buddy sent some over.). And besides just mailing me stuff (lol), these are people who celebrate each other's victories and lend a lot of support in times of struggles. So don't knock "imaginary" friends until you've tested the waters.
Hello, friend. (See, we don't look that weird. No homicidial maniacs here.)
And Maya loved playing with some new friends, too. Every time that we're around other kids I feel some inner part of me holding my breath for Maya. A little voice that thinks "Will they think it's weird that she doesn't talk to them? Or that she walks a little bit differently than they do?" But her two (adorable) girls were oh-so-ready to play with Maya . . . they ran, played with chalk, jumped (or bounced, in Maya's case) on a trampoline :) They had even learned some signs to do with her . . . how sweet is that?
Ok, ladies, we've got the chalk. What's the game plan here? A landscape scene? Animals? Scribbles, perhaps?
After brunch, it was on to my 10 year college reunion. An afternoon of running on the green and catching up with friends, followed by an evening of dinner, drinks and on-campus fun. My dad came up to babysit Maya at the hotel so we could have a child-free evening (and Dave's parents babysat Parker for the weekend, so we were dog-free as well).
We returned this morning and I went out to check the pigeon (I had a feeling the hatching would be soon, because some other pigeon was visiting last Thurs & Friday---I had never seen him/her before, and I thought it might be a sign that something was changing). Sure enough, one of the eggs had hatched---apparently just before we got in---the chick was still wet and wiggly.
Baby pigeon butt sticking out from under mom, with the other (unhatched) egg in the foreground
I left the video camera running for a while, with the hopes of catching footage of the other egg hatching. No dice, but I did get to see Mama Pigeon (MP) pushing the egg back under her, which was pretty cool:
I think I mentioned before that baby pigeons are seriously the weirdest looking animals ever---bright yellow, gangly, awkward. You may have nightmares. You've been warned.
I had to refill Parker's dog food container tonight, which really bugs MP (you may remember that this refilling procedure was what first outed her prescence to us). Anyway, sure enough, she flew onto the terrace railing while I refilled . . . and of course, I had my camera and video camera ready just in case she decided to leave. I slipped off my rings and put them next to the baby for a size comparison---it's tiny and so weird looking:
Here it is wiggling:
(Don't worry, MP was back on the nest as soon as I walked away. She picked an unfortunately high traffic area for her nest, but she seems to have quickly gotten used to Dave and I puttering around.)
We're waiting to see if the other egg hatches too. I feel like I don't have time to do any cool animal behavior stuff anymore, so the universe has brought me my own little case study, right onto my terrace :)
A fantastic trip from start to finish :)
In other news, Maya's ABR is on Tuesday. I'm nervous, and I feel bad for her poor little unsuspecting self. But I'm going to not think too much about it until tomorrow night.
This morning we went to a fair. They had toys for sale, games, prizes, balloons, etc. Maya was in heaven!
Well, she was in heaven because she got to wander around a parking lot. Not because of the activities. She just likes to wander, wander, walk in a circle, sit for a minute, walk, amble, wander, etc.
Oh yeah, and she found some leaves. And a few piles of dirt. Doesn't take much to entertain her.
During naptime I snuck a picture of Mama Pigeon. (Any name suggestions? Mama Pigeon isn't working for me.)
After her nap, Maya & I went to the playground, and then the park---where she got to run in a field of grass and dirt.
And then she saw a bird of her own . . . and went "running" as fast as her legs could carry her!
I'm coming to get you, birdie!
(That says "Running". Can you tell it's my first time using the paint program?)
It's Friday night, and Maya is tucked in snugly in her crib. After Dave & I have dinner we're just getting a few random things done. Parker's dog food container is empty so Dave heads onto the terrace to refill it from our giant green tupperware dog food tub. About half a second later he reappears in the living room looking shocked.
Me: What?
Dave: You're not going to believe this. I pulled out the tub (we keep it in the bottom shelf of this industrial shelving thing, filled with random pet supplies) and I swear, a bird flew out and went right between my legs!
Me: Flew out from where?
Dave: I don't know! Somewhere! How could I know where!?!?
Me: What kind of bird?
Dave:Are you kidding?! A bird just flew out of nowhere and went right between my legs!!! You think I know what type of bird it was?!?!?!?!
Me (standing up and walking outside): There's been a pigeon cooing out here on and off all week. I bet there's a nest.
So we're both outside, looking for a nest. Baby pigeons happen to be the weirdest looking birds ever (I raised some of them when I worked/lived at a wildlife hospital years ago) so I was kind of psyched that we might have some. But they're noisy critters and despite rattling things around, we couldn't hear anything.
I shrugged and turned to go back inside. Dave bent over to get the dog food and said "There are eggs!" So I went to get the camera. I told him to do a dramatic reenactment of the moment the bird flew out.
No, dude. That's "the fish was this big!". Try again.
Whoa! A bird!?!
The dog food tub. Can you see the eggs?
They were wayyyy back under the tarp!
While we were outside checking it out, Mama Pigeon flew back over and landed on the terrace below. She was checking us out.
This was how it all went back together.
Dave insists that this weird stuff only happens to because I live here. Animals are just drawn in :) (This makes more sense if you know that I was a zoology major, a science teacher, and a general animal behavior nerd.)
