We had two friends staying with us over the Bank Holiday weekend and as you can imagine Elmo was beside himself with joy – he never turns down a chance to show how lovable he is!! Georgie stayed in the background, happy to let Elmo make a fool of himself as he pranced about like a clown (in Georgie’s own words!).

Since the weather was nice we had a barbeque out in the garden but Elmo and George had to stay indoors because they were a bit frightened of the bbq. We couldn’t keep an eye on them as well as the food on the grill (as well as entertain our friends)! Elmo stood on the windowsill in the bedroom watching us, then he got tired and fell asleep. George had a snooze in her cage.

The feral pigeons got a bit annoyed with us since we were sitting in the garden all afternoon. They wanted to land to have their afternoon/early evening snack but we were in the way. The pigeons kept flying about in the sky, circling our garden and flat. I was a bit worried that they’d start bombing us to get us to leave the garden!! Flying pigeons are beautiful – the formation, the wing clapping noise they sometimes make, the speed and gracefulness of their flight. I can understand why some people choose to fly their pigeons (e.g. tumblers and other such breeds) – watching them is very relaxing.

George hasn’t laid any eggs yet. We thought she would lay them last weekend because she was very broody and moody but we were wrong. For some reason she seems to have changed her mind and isn’t looking broody at all at the moment.

And finally, last night Elmo woke us up at 3am when he almost fell off the nightstand. He flapped to regain his balance and we woke up in a bit of a panic. It’s never nice to wake up to a flapping bird – you immediately think the worst! Needless to say we weren’t impressed with him and found it hard to go back to sleep. Poor Elmo must have given himself a fright too with his near fall.

Here’s a webcam of a pigeon nest with parents and babies: http://www.beleefdelente.nl/torenvalk

(Sorry for the short post – we have guests staying with us so I’m a bit busy.)

A wonderful story about a beautiful friendly pigeon, Perry: Friendly pigeon causes a stir in Vicars Cross

And his Facebook fanpage: The Vicars Cross Pigeon!!!

It’s so nice to see other pigeons on Facebook and reported in the news. More positive publicity is needed about these wonderful pigeons!!!

Apart from feeding time, bathing time is a favourite pastime of pigeons.

My husband is feeding Elmo some peanuts and the look Elmo is giving him is priceless. I cannot describe it perfectly nor will a photo portray it exactly, however, Elmo is looking at my husband with such love and acceptance that I find it hard to believe he is a pigeon and not a person.

I can see Elmo’s emotions in his eyes as he patiently waits for my husband to hold out a peanut for him to eat. It is so clear and perfect – it melts my heart!

For those who don’t think animals can feel or have emotions I challenge you to look into Elmo’s eyes as he looks at my husband and not see anything. Impossible!! The love is shining through and I love Elmo even more for loving my husband the way he does.

Two good books on animal emotions are:

1. The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy – and Why They Matter, by Marc Bekoff
2. Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, by Jonathan Balcombe

On the 20th I posted a story about the fancy pigeon, Peaches (see Peaches – the apricot coloured pigeon).

I just wanted to post the following photo of her with her new mate, Horatio. He was quick to pursue her when Peaches was placed into her new home in the aviary and she obviously thought he was a catch and a few days later I saw them mating. They make a beautiful couple!

Elmo gave us – and himself as well – such a fright yesterday. As usual, Richard took him out into the garden for his late afternoon stroll around the garden. However, for some reason Elmo started shaking and shivering like he was scared of something and didn’t want to be in the garden. Then, unexpectedly, Elmo shot up into the air and hovered a bit before landing. Richard quickly went to grab him but Elmo shot up again into the air and spun about before hitting the ground. This happened a couple of more times before Richard managed to catch him. It was a heart-stopping moment.

We were so scared he’d fly over the hedge and into someone’s garden, or worst, onto the railway track opposite our garden. Elmo has never flown before in the garden and it is not an experience we want to live through again. Being an ex-PMV pigeon Elmo has permanent balance and flight damage that makes his flying a bit erratic and unstable. That’s why we don’t encourage him to fly outside. Indoors he’s more than welcome to fly about, but Elmo doesn’t fly much – he prefers to walk about instead. … Sometimes he will flap his wings and hover a bit for exercise though.

After taking Elmo indoors and giving him lots of hugs and kisses (as well as a good telling off for scaring us so!) we went out to see what could have scared him in such a way. The culprit was obvious: a bright blue tray that was being used as a bird bath! The tray had been put there recently for the feral pigeons, but it was obviously not Elmo’s cup of tea. We’ll have to replace the blue tray with something more discreet.

Georgie girl is bonded to me and she gets hormonal and broody often. If she’s in one of those moods and I pat her back she thinks she’s getting lucky and dances about in appreciation. Silly girl!

Here she is in mating mode:

Elmo’s blood blister has almost completely disappeared!! Hooray!!

In other news, today has been sunny and warm and perfect weather to let our pigeons out into the garden for some sun, however, my lovely husband was strimming the hedge and mowing the lawn, so we couldn’t have them out. So Georgie sunbathed on the floor in a sunny patch (so very cute) and after she felt like a toasted bundle of feathers I put a shallow dish of water down for her to cool down in. She loved it and was splashing to her hearts content, which attracted Elmo’s attention. He slowly walked up to her, shivering and shaking in excitement! He wanted to have a bath too!!

After Georgie had her fun in the water I put her on the sofa to dry off and put Elmo in the dish of water. He immediately started splashing about and didn’t mind my fingers at all as I splashed water on him. Sweet!

Here’s the evidence:

(Please ignore what I’m saying in the video clip. I was on the phone at the time!)

After the gardening work Richard and I slowly roasted in the sun with a cool drink in hand. We have to enjoy these few sunny moments we get – who knows, this could be the only hot day all summer!! … Now where’s my lollipop?

Ps. I have to share this photo with you because it was so unexpected to see this little fella sitting in the garden. What an adorable fox cub!

I heard Elmo cooing and dancing in the kitchen so I went to investigate with my camera and Elmo promptly directed his energy to me: