Babies get bigger, and more hawk strikes

Sat. 2.3.13

I didn't have to bring the babies in for the night as Summer came back to them, but I did bring them in this afternoon as Sky left them for an hour and forty minutes. Probably as they are a week old now, they would've been ok, but it's still cold, and really he should stay with them for most of the time. As you can see from this photo of the eldest, the soft yellow downy feathers are already changing to the spiky little white ones.

 

 

The photos below show the pigeon that I mentioned in the last blog that I felt had probably been caught by the hawk - and escaped. The fluffed up feathers on it's back are where the hawks talons probably grasped it. It's right eye is damaged, but it can still see well enough to eat, so I'm hoping it will get over the experience and be ok.

 

 

Sunday 3rd March 13

 

 

White dove with week old babies

 

Monday 4th March 13 - The flock waiting for me in the early morning

 

 

 

 

By lunchtime it was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to put Patience out in the hutch to get some fresh air and sunshine but it wasn't very successful as she just wanted to hide in the 'bedroom' part of it. I think she is still very very nervous.

 

 

 

She stayed in the hutch for a couple of hours, then I brought her in and she escaped onto the table.

 

 

 

Tues 5th and Wed 6th March - More hawk strikes - no bodies, but heaps of feathers in the yard. There was one this morning (Wed) while I was feeding the birds in the early morning. The hawk had the bird down in the yard outside the garden but I ran out  and they both flew off. The pigeons fly up and down, changing direction and height rapidly, to avoid the hawk.

 

 Later, I wanted to see if Patience could fly so I allowed her to be free in the conservatory. She flew up to the roof and got her wing caught in the support rail ....

 

 

 

But she soon got herself free........

 

 

This is how she looks now - two weeks, one day after the hawk attack

 

 

and close up, though not a brilliant picture

 

 

Despite the 'moist healing' with the gel, the area seems to have scabbed over, but it is impossible to look too closely as it stresses her out, being held down - obviously!!! I don't know how long I will be able to keep her for  - if it was down to me I'd keep her til her wound had completely healed and her feathers grown back, but she has a say as well, and no doubt, like other birds, she will tell me when she really really wants to go!

 

This is how the wound looked on the day it happened - Patience being examined by the vet.

 



 

Tonight, Summer left the babies on their own - they are only 11 days old, and mostly they are not left til age two weeks. The weather is reasonably mild, so I didn't think about bringing them in and instead just put a feather-filled cashmere Turtle-dove glove in with them as a mummy substitute, and blocked them in for the night. I'll unblock them before the doves arrive in the morning.

 

And here's my new batch of lovely Turtle-doves - I am addicted to them! Check out their website for gorgeous and useful recycled fingerless gloves http://www.turtle-doves.co.uk/ You can even have your own old cashmere jumper made into turtle-doves just for the price of the postage.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday and Friday 7th and 8th March - I now allow Patience to come out of her box and wire cage area at lunchtimes so she can perch on the conservatory rail, and have a bit of freedom. Look at the state of her still!

 

 

 

 

 

Today, Friday, when I came home there had been another pigeon killed by the hawk in the garden - I am so afraid that Sky, or worse, Summer will get killed - it's a constant nightmare. The pigeon had been caught on the lawn, then dragged under the hedge, and was very much eaten, so didn't die in vain (not much consolation for it though!). I was sorry to see it, as always, but relieved I didnt have to mourn a special one as well as clear up feathers and gore from the grass. We left the body where it was, but it was gone before we even went to bed - so either Charlie Fox had visited or the cat we feed had dragged it off. When I went to see Cloud and Patience in the conservatory, I couldn't see Patience anywhere, til a small sound alerted me to the area between the wall and a unit we keep CDs etc on. She was stuck, wedged, down there. Poor Patience, I don't know how long she had been there, it could have been a very short time or as long as 3 hours and maybe what went on in the garden had frightened her off the rail, and then she got stuck. I rescued her, and held the cup so she could drink, and then hand-fed her peanuts - though really I am trying to wean her off hand-feeding. I spy on her to see if she eats/drinks on her own, but I have never seen her do so!

 

I brought one of the babies in on Thursday - I thought it was the oldest one. I just wanted to see it and they'd just been fed so I knew it was ok. The felt-tip band had rubbed off it's leg - or I got the wrong baby!

 

 

Wing of 12 day old white dove squab

 

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 I love the babies at this age, when their white feathers explode like fluffy cotton, and their wings are so delicate and lacey. I quickly checked the other one too, without bringing it into the house - my excuse is I am checking them for parasites, but really I just want to see and hold them! The other didn't have the drawn on band either so it must've rubbed off so when I ring them - maybe at about 17 days old or so - I will just have to guess which is the oldest, though it doesnt really matter.

An adorable young brown pigeon has just joined the flock - another late in the year baby that has now emerged from the nest. In the bottom picture, the one above the young one is one of the gorgeous 'opal' pigeons that visit. It's no wonder people like pigeons with all their varied plumage - reminds me of one of my favourite poems - Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins  http://www.poemtree.com/poems/PiedBeauty.htm







The other young ones that I mentioned in previous recent blogs - the grey one and the dark one I called Sparky - are still around but getting bigger and less recognisable. I feel my babies in the nest would be rearable - if, God forbid, anything happened to their parents. Very cold weather is forecast to come back, and I will be worried about them at night.....may have to bring them in.

 

To be cont....

A special dove - and Turtle-Doves

It was 18th October 2010 and my Pilates class wasn't on due to half term so I decided to go to Claremont National Trust garden to have a walk and see the flock of 30-50 white doves that live there. The dove above is a rather scruffy fantail at Claremont - the only one. The rest have ordinary tails.

Here are some more of them, with a few pigeons

They appear to roost in the trees - I don't think they go anywhere else at night.

I was probably the first person in the gate that day, and almost straight away I noticed a dove sitting alone on the grass, nearly under a hedge and near the lake. I thought it looked sweet and took a photo but didn't think much more of it. I wandered on and fed the large flock and wondered anew how they all manage to get enough to eat, competing as they do with ducks, geese, swans, seagulls.....

After I completed the shortish walk around the lake, it struck me that there had been something unusual about the first dove and I went back to see if it was still there. It was in the same position and I got close and took another photo and it allowed me to get closer and closer until I could pick it up without any trouble at all.

The poor little thing looks pretty in the photo but had a damaged wing and was very poorly. It occurred to me that if I went back to the entrance kiosk and said I've found one of your doves with a damaged wing, and can I take it home, I have a flock of white doves, I know what to do etc etc they might actually say no, health and safety, property of the NT, we have to ask someone, blah, blah, so I just whisked out the carrier bag I had in my pocket and popped it in there, secreting it out of the gate with no-one any the wiser! Safe in the car, I put it in a box that just happened to be there. One good thing about me being so messy is that I always have useful things in the car!

I named the dove Jose, after the men from the San Jose mine who had just been rescuedf. My poor little Jose was very quiet in the car. He (or she) appeared to be a young bird with the sharp beak of a juvenile and was very thin and dehydrated. At home, I filled a little pot with water and dipped his beak into it, but he didn't respond. For the first 48 hours I kept him confined in the 'hospital box' in the conservatory, with food and water of course. Every couple of hours I took him out and held his beak in the water pot - and when at last he took a sip while I was holding him, I felt uplifted and happy that we'd turned a corner and he might pull through. The next day though one of his eyes was sticky and half closed and I thought 'here we go, the beginning of the end' but I bathed it gently with a soft, non-fluffy cloth and plain water and the following day it was clear again. Jose started eating and drinking normally within a day and quickly gained strength, but unfortunately I doubt if he will every fly again. I had asked the Universe to send me a dove for my empty cote so I wasn't surprised when I found Jose, but he was not like Spirit a very friendly dove who had also had a damaged wing and lived with me for a month from Sept to Oct '08 (her story can also be found on this blog), Jose was much less amenable. Spirit spent her days on a branch near my kitchen door, mingling with the other doves on the patio and lawn, and walking out onto the path when she wanted to go to bed in the dovecote. Jose didn't like the branch, wherever I placed it, choosing to jump off and go and hide in the flower beds or the shed kitchen if I left the door open. Eventually he decided to like being on the big garden table with the hospital box as a shelter. He now goes in and out as he pleases, and has a big shallow dish of water to drink from and bathe in. Well he's supposed to bathe in it and has done so precisely once! He's beginning to look a bit grubby now.

I've had him for about 2 months now and he is more friendly. I don't have to chase him round the table when it's bed-time any more before I can pick him up. Bed time is currently around 3.30pm -3.45pm as the days are so short and gloomy. Of course he is vulnerable on the table if there are any hawks around, but I saved him from probably being eaten by a fox on the first night, or starving to death. I do wonder if it was the right thing to do - is it much of a life for a bird, not being able to fly? But it is a life, and he does have company as he can see the other doves, and some of them alight on the table - most probably to eat his food rather than say hello! I also worry that if he proves to be a she, in the mating season she will get hassle from young males who don't realise her disability.



Since I've had Jose I've looked after three other birds. The first was a dark pigeon - the one above. Here he is getting better - sorry I've got the pictures out of order! He arrived alone, lame and lacking much of the feathers from his back. I threw him peanuts as he had difficulty hopping between the feeders but as he could fly I wasn't too worried.

Jose again, looking perkier - we ringed him as soon as we knew he would live


Here's the poorly lame one, as he first arrived - possibly got away from a hawk or other predator

The second was a brown pigeon who was seemingly dazed and unable to fly. I put it in the dovecote - not Jose's quarters, in case it was diseased! - with food and water and it flew away after a couple of hours, so don't know what was wrong there. The third casualty was a cock pheasant, also dazed, wandering round in circles on our little country road. I got out of the car to see what I could do and it flopped into the ditch and lay trapped in a bramble. I got it out and it sat quietly on the back seat of the car til I got home. I put it in a box with food and water and next time I looked it had gone. I think it may have suffered a slight collision with a car but was basically ok.

The old saying of be careful what you wish for can be applied to me now as I have dependant bird and we are going away for a few days after Christmas. There is no-one I can ask to bring Jose out of the dovecote in the morning and put him to bed in the late afternoons - although someone is coming to feed the birds, of course. So I bid on and won and super hutch from ebay - a bargain at £28. The hutch is just right, all one level, as Jose wouldn't have been capable of going up and down a ladder. Occasionally he jumps off the table, thinking he can fly, and lands feet up, totally helpless. He will have to stay shut up in the hutch while we are away, but it is roomy and he will be safe - I hope.

Jose standing in front of his lovely new hutch

Before I finish, I must mention Turtle Doves, the gorgeous recycled wrist warmer and fingerless gloves rolled into one. I met Kate, who makes them, at her stall at the Bishop's Castle Michaelmas Fair - I was attracted by the name!- and just fell in love with them. I bought 2 pairs for me, in soft blue-grey and emerald green, and four pairs to give as presents, all of which have been enthusiastically received - especially the lucky girl who got the cashmere pair! The photo shows me in mine feeding a pigeon at St. Peter Port Harbour, in Guernsey. But do please go to her site to have a look, they are so colourful, pretty and useful http://www.turtle-doves.com/

The end