Thursday 17 June 2010

Pigeon Punishment

So it's 9.30am and I've been up for over 2 hours now. Let me explain...


Remember the pigeon who nested on my stackpipe from the fosse?  Well, while Jason was here I asked him to investigate the nest as the bird was no longer sitting on it and I had seen and heard nothing of her for a few days - normally she cooed loudly each day and sometimes her mate would come and take over the sitting while she had the chance to stretch her wings.  Anyway...


Jason said there was nothing but a dead bird in the nest, so he took it down.  As he moved it a large baby bird fluttered down from it to the floor and started flapping and hopping its way along the edge of the terrace. Well there was nothing we could do - we couldn't re-affix the nest, catch the bird and put it back in the nest, nor could we take over its care ourselves, so we just had to leave it in the hope that the mother would come and take it off somewhere. 


However, I found a dead pigeon on the lawn and thought that was probably the mother, so I thought maybe the baby was already starving to death. Then it rained most of the next day, so I didn't hold out much hope for it.  But, lo and behold, yesterday morning I saw the mother bird come and feed the baby, and it found itself a relatively dry place under a bramble.


Today the weather is dry and the sun is starting to come out and baby pigeon has preened himself and is looking pretty dapper.  




Hopefully the mother will continue to feed him until he can fly properly (which doesn't seem far off) and I won't feel so much like a baby bird murderer.


BUT...


...mummy pigeon had her revenge, as she made loud pigeon noises outside my bedroom window, sitting in the place where the nest had been, as soon as dawn broke, and I was unable to sleep - hence I got up just after 7 am, which is very early for me, and I am sitting here typing this with a large cup of strong coffee, wondering if it is too soon for an early night...

2 comments:

Annie said...

It could have been worse :-) We have pidgeons who seem to use various places as target practise around our house and we are then expected to clean up the mess!
I would never hurt one but really they are just flying rats and after all they do make really lovely pate :-)
A x

Jason Fist said...

We'll have to put some spikes on that. Get some in and I'll look after it.