Meet The Pobble and Faith goes visiting

15th Oct '12

Happy and Cloud turned up in the garden together. They visited Happy's old lodgings in the cote, swung on the wire for a bit, sunned on the roof, and generally seemed content in each other's company. I am so relieved that Happy has moved on so quickly after Jose's death - I couldn't have borne to see him moping around the hutch where she used to live.



I have seen him 'driving' Cloud - which is the expression used when the male chases the female, occasionally pecking her. This either results in the female giving in, and becoming the male's mate, or the male giving up and trying to fix his interest elsewhere!

It would be a fantastic ending - or rather a continuing - of Happy and Cloud's stories if they were to get together properly as mates, but even if it is just an Autumn romance, this diversion is exactly what Happy needs - poor boy!

Here they are again - Happy with 'driving' on his mind....





16.10.12 - As Happy is pleasurably diverted, I have been using the hutch for my bedraggled little Faith when the weather is fine. Mostly she sits inside the blue part, but can wander outside into the wire box if she wants to.  I liked to give Jose as much freedom as possible, but can't allow Faith to be unprotected as she can't defend herself in any way against the rough and tumble of the other doves and pigeons. She is very thin and vulnerable, but incredibly stays alive somehow or another.





I have trained a handsome pigeon to fly to my hand for grain and peanuts. I've named him Royal as he has a rich mantle of purple and green plumage. At Claremont, the white doves and pigeons readily eat from my hands, but my own flock here are much more reticent, so having Royal come to my hand is a feather in my cap, ha ha! I look dreadful in the photos hubbie took, so I cropped the pics down!

 

 

 

 



18th October 2012

Today would've been the second anniversary of the finding of Jose - if she had lived. I had planned to do an anniversary portrait of her. Instead here is a photo as a memorial of my lovely dove, pretty in the snow of 2010.

 

 

 

When I was tucking up the squabs this evening, I checked Happy's lodgings to make sure it was clean in there, and found one stick! Oh no! Surely Happy and Cloud will not start nesting at this time of year? Maybe it was just a stick to say 'This is my home, so stay out!'. I haven't seen Happy and Cloud all day, but I haven't been in all the time. I took the squabs out again today to check them for lice and louse flies.

 

 

25 day old white dove squabs

 

Last time they stayed cuddled up - this time they are much more grown-up and October started climbing up the back of the chair

 

 

 

September followed, and they managed to scramble up using their sharp toe-nails for leverage

 

 



I took some close ups as I love their fluffy yellow downie bits

 

 

Another week or so and these babies will be fledging. They get very excited now when the flock arrives, and are starting to take turns to look out of the window at the world outside. Soon they will be teetering on the edge..... and that's the time that squabs can get lost - if they fall off the edge, away from the nest, the parents probably won't feed them, they can't fly properly and are easy prey. Of course if Septie and Octie fall off, hopefully I will find them before too long and pop them back!

 

Fri 19.10.12 - I'd fed the birds and was eating my porridge, but still keeping an eye on the cote outside when I realised there was something going on at the back, so I went out to see. From the ground I could see two white doves scufflling in Happy's lodgings, and when they continued for a while, I got the steps up so I could peer in. I could see one bird had a single red ring and one a single blue ring so I could tell it was Happy and Sky. It seemed odd as since the initial fighting when Happy first came to the hutch they have lived in harmony, with Sky and Summer even tolerating Happy sitting in his lodgings at the back whenever he pleased. I didn't want my boys to hurt or even kill each other, so I decided best to remove one. I took Sky out as it's Happy's place and Sky knew that! and then took Sky into the shed kitchen for a quick look at him to check for lice etc. He struggled but let me examine him, and he seemed pest free - but I still gave his back and tail a little spray with my anti-mite stuff before releasing him. Then I worried he would be cross with me and wouldn't come back to the babies, but he's made of sterner stuff, and of course I have handled him before, when I initially ringed him - so all was well, and hopefully he will just let Happy be. Cloud wasn't with Happy, so I don't know what's happened to her.

 

There's been a lot of loose behaviour round the cote recently - the sort of thing Flash wouldnt have tolerated - comings and goings, ins and outs. After this morning's fight with Happy, Sky had trouble with another white dove wanting to get into the nestbox where the squabs are - he routed out this other one, and at first I didnt know what was going on, as this one also had a blue ring - but I think it's Bianca2 who I ringed ages ago - she's a female, so I can usually distinguish her from Sky but sometimes it's not easy. Why on earth does she want to go into the nest box? As I type, Sky is sitting blocking the entrance, and she is sitting on a lower ledge.

 

Monday 22nd Oct. 12 - September and October are now about 28/29 days old. Sky and Summer seemed to be encouraging them out today. Here Sky sits on the ledge, and one of the babies peeps out.

 



 

 Summer arrives to give a feed

 

 

 

 Then she sat on the top of the stepladder

 

 

Here's a close up below - Summer is a beautiful, intelligent bird - but a bit grubby at the moment from going in and out of the nestbox, which despite my efforts with the kitchen paper liner is very smeared round the edges! (I don't think this pair of babies could make any more mess if they tried!)

 

 

 

Sky and Summer's last two squabs - Spring and Autumn - who are now about 3 months old (hatched around 29th July) are thankfully still visiting the garden, and I try to make sure they get fed, plus extra peanuts.

 

I couldn't get a very good photo of Autumn....who wouldn't stand still....

 

 

And Spring kept rooting in the leaves.....she often goes there.....

 

 

 

But then posed nicely for me!

 

 

 Wed 24th October 12

 

The doves get the main afternoon feed mid afternoon now the days are shorter. I noticed a pigeon under the garden table, seemingly very hungry but didn't rush/fly about with the others in the scrum for food. It stayed, still searching, when the others in the main had flown off, and I then could see what was wrong with it - the poor darling thing had virtually no feet at all!!!! My net (now not much used since Jose isn't around any more to jump down from her table and need catching) was employed and I put The Pobble as I called him into the hutch - first removing Faith to the conservatory. I gave him a dish of grain and peanuts in the outside part - but with the wire box up - and he ate voraciously.

 

 

 

 



 

 

But after resting a bit, but he was trying to get out. It was still an hour from darkness, so I thought maybe I shouldn't keep him if he wanted to go. First I wrapped him in a cloth and took him into the shed kitchen to check out. You can see his stumps more clearly in the photo below - and I also sprayed his back and wings with the anti-mite spray.

 



 







 I put him on the floor, and he could get himself off the ground, but came crashing down again. Poor Pobble, you can't seem to fly so you must spend the night in the hutch! (if you don't know why I called him Pobble, then you need to look up Edward Lear's nonsense rhyme! - it's a bit long to reproduce here).

 

 

A pigeon called The Pobble

 

 

 Cloud had been there for the afternoon feed, as she was yesterday, but Happy no longer seems to be with her. He's given up his lodgings in the back of the cote, and for the last two days has arrived very late. He'll always be welcome here, and I'll always try to feed him - my beautiful boy. Here he is, a single white dove, with the last of the pigeons, at dusk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 25th Oct - The Pobble was quiet and seemingly content in the hutch this morning.

There was a lot of mess, so obviously he had had enough to eat! After I took the photo, he rudely pushed past me, and flew to the roof, without a thank you for the feed and night's lodging! He didn't come down to eat throughout the day, and I assume he has moved on. Bye Pobble, it was nice knowing you!

 

 

 

 

You've heard of therapy dogs/cats who go to visit people in hospital and care homes? Well today I got Faith ready to go and see my old neighbour who has had a stroke and is confined to home and wheelchair.

 

 

Here she is waiting in her little basket, on the hedge, for me to be ready

 

 

She looks cleaner in the photo than she does in real life - she is rather a bedraggled little creature though she preens and does her best to keep tidy.

 

Pet dove visits elderly stroke victim

 

My neighbour, E, was delighted to see Faith. In the old days, before his stroke, he used to willingly feed the doves for me if I was going to be out, or on holiday, and he still takes a great interest in them, especially news of the squabs.

 

 



 

 

Faith sat quietly in her basket in his wheelchair while we had a chat.... but when I left and had reached our yard outside the garden, she took a massive leap out of the basket and onto the ground - silly Faith, scrabbling about on the gravel and in the puddles, getting even more dirty!

 

 

 



 







I took the babies out of the cote again this afternoon. At this age they always look so bemused and perplexed by the world around them. They are about 32 days old, and I know Sky wants them to fledge. It will be in the next couple of days I should think, maybe tomorrow.... Here's Sky on the top of the cote, first thing this morning, encouraging September to come out.

 

 

 



 

 

 

Here's September....

 

 

and here's October.....

 

 

They'll be fledged by the next blog - wish them luck!

 

To be cont.....

All the babies fledge

Wednesday 29th August ' 12

This morning at 6.30 am both Spring and Autumn were in the dovecote, waiting for daddy Sky and mummy Summer to come and give them breakfast, but by 8am Autumn was missing, presumed fledged and nowhere to be seen! I was concerned as I had to be leaving by quarter to nine, and it was promising to be a miserable rainy day. I checked the other holes of the dovecote, and the flower bed, and left with a bit of a heavy heart as I didn't find him |(or her) but thankful that I had left Pearl, Jose and Happy locked up safely together in the hutch, and Spring was still in the cote.

Parents and baby - but who's who?

 

Spot the difference!

 

Can you tell which is which? Well that's Pearl at the front, Happy in the middle and Jose at the back!

 

 

I came back home in the rain at 3pm - all the birds were ravenous, and I fed the flock first, then released Happy and Jose, checked Faith, gave her a drink of water because I am never sure she drinks without me and then went to see what was happening with the twins. Well I could see Spring had fledged too, and was out standing on one of the two boxes I had put on the hedge to give shelter if needed.

 



 

But Autumn was still nowhere to be seen - until I had gone to the trouble of changing into jeans and wellies to have a good look in the wet flower-beds and everywhere, and then he popped up out of nowhere, but was in fact in the lower dovecote hole, facing the hutch. I was relieved the hunt was over before it had started and I could have a cup of tea!

 

Autumn stayed in there, but Spring stayed out in the rain with Summer....

 

 

and then Sky joined them....

 

But a while later when the parents fluttered to the roof, I trapped Spring in the net, and put him in the dovecote, out of the damp, with Autumn. Both in the same hole, and they stayed there for bedtime, thank goodness, so I didn't have to do any worrying or catching!

 

Thursday 30th Aug.12

 

Today started with Sky looking for sticks under Jose's table...

 



 

 

 

Now Spring and Autumn have moved to another compartment in the cote no doubt he thinks he will start making another nest. Oh no please Sky, can't you feel the nip in the air, we don't need a fourth set of babies!

 

Here's Pearl's portrait - four weeks old today!

 



 

 Summer is in the favoured nest box, with Happy on the top of the cote - he was trying to coax Pearl to fly with him, but she is young yet, a few more days maybe - and you can see one of the twins in the the lower compartment (both were in there). The dove cote needs cleaning and painting desperately - I hope to take it down and do it this winter.

 





 

 

In the afternoon, Pearl joined her parents on the table outside - L to R Pearl, Happy, Jose

 

 

 

Careful Pearl! You'll get stuck!

 

 

Dove family portrait - L to R Mother, Baby, Father



 

Faith, still in the beans (if not full of them!)

 

At the end of the day, Lesa is often one of the last doves in the garden. I think he has a nest nearby as he is dirty down his front - which often happens when a parent is constantly going into a grubby nest area. He (or she) is a nervous bird, very elusive, hard to photograph. I have often recently tried to get a good photo of him, but he walks very quickly, eats rapidly and flies off before I can get a good shot. Here's the best I could do!

 

 

Happy on the other hand, is confident, calm, tame and very pleased to pose for me! He is always the very very last bird to leave the garden.

 

 

Here he is relaxing at the end of the day, sitting on the hospital (at present unoccupied). Can I have a close up, Happy? Of course! What a handsome fellow he is. Spring and Autumn were in the back of the dovecote at bedtime - they have fledged just to the back of the cote, and don't come out very much!

 

 



 

Friday 31st August - The last day of August, and chilly this morning. Sky continued to collect sticks, and one time when I saw a white dove in the raised bed I thought it was him, but it was Happy...so I watched him take a long stick through the entrance to the hutch and plonk it right on top of Pearl!!! Pearl is Daddy trying to tell you something? I wish I'd been able to film it, you had to see it to believe it! Pearl got up, but the stick didn't fall off immediately.

 

Below is Joseph in the middle of the photo. He's coping very well as he recovers from paramyxovirus, but I help him by always throwing peanuts right in front of him. The other pigeons swoop on them, and sometimes in every handful he only gets one or two, so I follow him around the lawn, trying to judge the throws so he gets enough.

 

Here's a rare picture of Bobbie 3 - it's not rare for me to see him as he's usually with the flock when feeding, but I don't usually have my camera then. I can't now remember what was wrong with him - but whatever it was, he recovered and is fine! You can just about see his identifying blue ring.

 

There were so so many pigeons here today - I really can't feed them all. The roof in this photo only shows some of them- I don't dare count them, there must be 150 or more!

 

They certainly make themselves at home

 

 

Relaxing and bathing

 

 

A lone white dove amongst them!

 

 

And this one - in the middle - can you see? She must've come straight from the nest as a hatched egg is still sticking to her. She came to the ground and the egg wobbling between her legs made it difficult to walk, but she flew to the roof, and seconds after I took the photo, the egg unstuck and tumbled down the tiles.

 

Later I am pretty sure there was a hawk attempt on the flock, as I heard a thud, and just saw some brown wings flying away. The pigeons scattered and didn't come back for ages... and when they did, there weren't so many, so maybe it was a good thing! But I hate the hawk being attracted to the garden as it puts my special doves at great risk.

 

This morning my little family all squashed in together - Happy's maybe sorry he plonked a stick on Pearl!

 

And Spring and Summer abandoned nest building to relax in the greens

 

 



I'm not sure if Faith is eating much - I fed her a few peanuts by hand today, but there is not much point in that if she is at the end of her life, and choosing not to eat... well, we will see how she gets on. She seems content enough...sitting on the garden table in the photo below

 

 

I took Pearl out of the hutch to take her photo today, and when I gently released her she flew the short distance back to the open hutch. I don't really want her to fledge properly, and leave the hutch - my precious baby!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st September 2012 - September already! But often a lovely month, let's hope we get an Indian Summer - I hope that every year! 

 









 

Spring came down on the ground, I think for the first time today. He seems to now be more advanced than Autumn, though I was convinced it was the other way round at first. Here he is swamped by the pigeons. Then I gently shooed them away, and he is too young to worry about shooing, so he stayed

and fed himself - though Sky and Summer still feed him too.

 

 

 

I was worried that Autumn is staying in the back of the cote, and maybe not attracting attention from Sky and Summer, so I took her out despite much squeaking to feel her crop - but she appeared to have that grainy feel, and so I put her back and am hoping for the best. I just don't want her to get left behind like poor little Pip did. His death was just so sad and he was a sweet little bird. Lizzy2, Spring and Autumn's older sibling, is still here every day to feed, and like all my ringed birds gets peanuts thrown to her specially.

 



 

Pearl doesn't like being taken out of the hutch, but here she is, looking beautiful as always. Her plumage is so soft and thick. She's gorgeous! I let her fly back to the hutch as it's good practice!

 

And guess what? her daddy, Happy, didnt fly away tonight, but stayed in the hutch, so you know what that means, don't you? I suspect there might be an egg in the morning!

 

2.9.12 - I was totally mistaken! Happy wasn't in the hutch when I opened up this morning - he must've snuck away when I wasn't looking. So, as we were....

 

I went out early again this Sunday, off to my car boot, but was surprised to see a collared dove with spread wings on the ground in the narrow exit from our yard to the outer world! I didnt realise it was dead at first.... the poor pretty little thing, it only had the most minor damage to one eye - I wonder what happened? What a shame....

 

 

Later, when I drove home, another collared dove was fluttering around the same place.... probably it's mate. This sort of thing really saddens me....

 

The squirrels are back in the garden - here one helps himself, while Jose and Happy stand well back..

 

 

 

Sky and Summer spent a lot of time together cosying up in the cote today. I have noticed that there is quite a respectable stick nest in there now.

 

 

Spring and Autumn peeped out of their  new chosen sleeping places - Autumn top back and Spring at the side





 

And later on Pearl did something naughty and had to be chastised by mummy and daddy

 

 

At least that what it looks like to me in this photo!

 

 

 

 

But he soon bounced back to his normal self

 

 

Mon 3.9.12 -  Spring and Autumn are fully fledged. They can feed themselves although still squeak for food from Sky, and get it! They are more independant and less needy than the previous pair, Lizzy2 and the poor little Pip. Never once have they used the day boxes I put on the hedge, and there's been no worrying and catching them at night. Every evening they've put themselves to bed in the cote, and Sky hasn't blocked the entrances or stopped them doing so, like he did Lizzy2 & Pip, and before them, Lizzy and Lympy.

 

 



 

 

 Pearl shows no sign of fledging - it's much too comfortable here with Mummy and Daddy during the day, and just Mummy at night. She wanders around the table....

 



 

But then wonders how to get back in????

 

 

Oh well, I think it's this way - best foot forward!

 

 

Are you tired, Mummy?

 

 

Today's portrait

 

 

Autumn decided to visit the old nestbox, just for old times sake.....

 

 

 

 

But mummy Summer soon saw her off....

 

 

 

 

Tue.4th Sept - I was at Birdworld today so was taking photos of other birds - like this budgie

 

 

 

But I didn't forget to take my daily picture of Pearl

 

 

 

 

Wed. 5th Sept 12 - As soon as Happy arrived at Jose's table this morning about 6.30am I could see that he had one purpose in mind - to get Pearl to fledge! and within minutes Pearl followed Daddy to the roof for the first time. Well she (or he) IS about 34 days old, and that's a couple of days over the latest normal fledging time.

 

 

 

I was surprised to see, in the late afternoon, Spring still demanding to be fed... and Sky did give in and feed her. She's approximately 38 days old now. Really Spring you are too old for Daddy to feed you now, though my book does say that squabs may not be fully independant until 7 weeks old.

 

 

A beautiful stranger, with racing rings, turned up in the garden when I'd already decided that it was the end of the feeding day - and I am really trying to economise with grain as it is so expensive.

 

 



 

But I couldn't let such a gorgeous bird, white with soft brown marking, go hungry, could I?

 

And guess who's spending the night? - Summer!

 

And that's another dovie week done! Now Pearl's fledged I won't be taking daily photos - she's gone from this - her first picture

 

 

To this... in 34 days!

 

 

To be cont....