Elmo loves attacking his fat woodpigeon toy:

Our pigeon isn’t the only one who likes to attack toys. Here are two other pigeons attacking their cuddly friends:

Once upon a time, as a little girl wandering about my local library, I found a book on origami. As an art form it intrigued me, however, I wasn’t much good at it. I seemed to lack the ability to fold a piece of paper in a neat fold. So the book was returned and my attention went elsewhere.

Today my husband showed me a photo of an origami blue bar pigeon (the photo below) and I went, “Wow! I want it!!” Isn’t it impressive? Looks like he gift wrapped a pigeon! Blue Bar Pigeon by Seth Friedman:

Blue Bar Pigeon by Seth Friedman

Upon searching for other origami pigeons I found this amazing one, called Paloma de Barras Azules by Roman Diaz:

Paloma de Barras Azules by Roman Diaz

We may not be able to make such complicated and delicate folds as the above origami sculptures, however, I’m sure we could make this one: Origami Dove. Such a simple and beautiful design:

Origami dove

And isn’t this origami pigeon gorgeous?

I also found this website that has a gallery of origami pigeons and doves: http://www.origami-kids.com/photo-birds/pigeon-1.htm

On the sofa enjoying a TV programme. When I turn my head to see what Georgie is up to I see that she’s on the backrest trying to feed the corner of a cushion. … What a silly girl! She has the cushion in her beak and she’s shaking her head about, trying to regurgitate a bit of food. Then she swings around and dances up and down the sofa backrest before presenting herself to be mated. I just turned back to the TV, totally incapable of commenting on her outrageous misplaced behaviour.

Later that evening I find Elmo picking bits from his mineral pick-pot. He LOVES his pick-pot, so much so that the white patch of feathers on his chest have now turned pink – from all the time he spends leaning against the red minerals!

I tried to take a photo of him with his head in the pot but Elmo became too excited over the camera and wasn’t cooperating. Sadly, this photo doesn’t show the delicate shade of pink his feathers are now. They may look white, but trust me, they are pink!

Elmo by his beloved pick-pot

What a glorious day it has been today! Since the sun decided to make an appearance I quickly set up the run in the garden to give Georgie and Elmo a chance to be out in the sunshine.

And they loved it! It’s been a while since they’ve been outside and they enjoyed every opportunity to soak up some rays (the sun started to play peek-a-boo behind some clouds) and to peck at the grass and earth.

Pretty Georgie

Since both Elmo and Georgie are disabled and cannot fly properly, we put them in the run for their own safety (not at the same time otherwise Elmo would attack Georgie!). I also had Georgie on the grass outside of the run for a while (when it was Elmo’s turn in the run) and kept a very close eye on her in case she decided to flap into the air and be carried away by the wind.

Elmo is usually a bit scared in the garden but today he was a champ. He saw a bit of dirt and started pecking at it and then preened himself in the sun. He wasn’t bothered by anything.

Elmo pecking at the ground

Elmo in the run

I took a little video of Georgie but she wasn’t sure about the camera (you can see her backing away at the sound of the camera in the beginning and end of the video).

Georgie in the garden

My knitting addiction has led me to knit another pigeon.

I have now knitted five different pigeons and here they all are:

Back row:

• Feral pigeon, pattern from Mad Monkey Knits: My pet pigeons
• White “Wonky” pigeon, pattern from Alan Dart: Percy the pigeon
• Fat woodpigeon in nest, pattern modified from Petite purls: Fat Robin

Front row:

• Cooey pigeon, pattern from Stitch London
• Tiny pigeon, pattern from Mochimochi Land: Tiny perching pigeons

And a close up of the feral pigeon:

Davey has a mate – finally!!

I’m so happy to announce the romance between Davey and Jules!

The happy couple: Jules (left) and Davey (right)

If you don’t know about Davey’s plight please read: Once again, pigeon matchmaking

Last week I had to take Jules away from the aviary because one of the pigeons had pecked her and she was bleeding around her right eye. Thankfully, there was no damage done and after receiving pain relief medication and a few nights away to recover she was fine. While Jules recuperated I went into the resident aviary to see what could have been the problem and quickly identified that a lack of nesting sites was probably the main issue. A few of the flighted pigeons had taken up the hutches on the floor to nest in instead of using the nests on the shelves higher up, which left the flightless pigeons (from broken wings) no place to nest. So Jules had probably tried to go into one of the occupied hutches and was attacked.

I found some empty hutches and put them in the aviary and the nestless couples went to investigate the new properties.

Property to rent!

Button, who has a broken wing, and his flighted mate, Davina, decided the top hutch was the perfect spot to nest in. Button manages to get to the top hutch by hopping from the log to the hutch. They seem very happy together and I heard Davina’s loving coos to Button when I went to take a photo.

Davina (left) and Button (right) in their new home

Davey and Jules have taken up residency in the bottom hutch! Which means that every couple now has a place to nest in and peace should reign. … But pigeons can be such territorial little sods that I’m sure the males will be visiting each spot to see if it is better and if they can turf the occupiers out. C’est la vie!

I love this photo of Davey marching into his home to greet Jules:

Davey entering the hutch

Jules (left) and Davey (right)

We visited the zoo at Chessington World of Adventures today and were amused in seeing woodpigeons flying about, mingling freely with the captive animals (one woodpigeon was sorting through the ostriches straw bedding – possibly looking for suitable bits of straw to steal for nesting material).

Walking past a large enclosure that housed a big white bird I did a double-take. Something about the bird caught my attention. My “pigeon sense” was tingling.

The large white bird was a Pied Imperial Pigeon (Ducula bicolor).

Pied Imperial Pigeon

We sadly couldn’t get a better photo of the pigeon (you can just about see it on the branch), however, these websites will give you more information and photos on the beautiful pigeon, which is a frugivore (fruit eater)!

• Avian Web: http://www.avianweb.com/piedimperialpigeons.html
• BirdLife International: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=2743
• Paradise Earth: http://www.paradiseearth.com/Bird%20Articles/Pied%20Imperial%20Pigeon.html

And here are two videos of the pigeons (from two different zoos):

Isn’t it always the case when visiting zoos or other animal collections – the wild pigeons or fancy ones catch our eyes first! (Such as when we visited Porfell Wildlife Park & Sanctuary in Cornwall: Star attraction!)

We saw some other lovely creatures at Chessington Zoo, such as this handsome ostrich:

This plucky chicken (I want one!):

These adorable meerkats:

And our highlight of the day, Harley the sealion:

Rev receives a kiss

Harley gives Richard a hug!

I find it almost unbearable to listen to a single male pigeon coo desperately for a mate. It tugs at my heart. I must find the pigeon a mate!

In the resident pigeon aviary at work there are two single males and one single female pigeon. The female, Birdie, is not interested in pigeons at all, only humans, so she pretty much ignores the single males who were desperate to mate with her when she first arrived.

Button, one of the single boys, has been quite patient in his wait for a mate, but Davey boy, the other single boy, has been cooing and dancing every day in his attempt to attract a mate – or rather, to steal a mate from the other males.

So when two racing pigeons arrived at work in need of a home my hopes were raised that they were female. One laid an egg shortly after arriving, so she is obviously female. But we’re still not sure about the other one. Only one way to find out: Mix them with the others and see what happens!!

But let me tell you first about the confirmed female racing pigeon, whom I’ve named Davina.

Davina

She was brought to my work because of the “mess” she and her feral pigeon mate was making on a couple’s property. She hadn’t flown home after a race and had taken up residency in Kent with her new mate. The couple caught her and took her to Devon where they released her, hoping she would fly back to her original home. … She made it back to Kent before them. … For fear that something bad may happen to Davina if we released her, we made the decision to try her in Dora’s and Pidge’s aviary. Davina is a lovely blue bar and immediately paired up with Button, much to poor Davey’s annoyance. He tried so hard to woo her but she only had eyes for Button. Button is naturally extremely happy with his beautiful mate.

Button (left) and his new mate, Davina (right).

The second racing pigeon arrived with a broken wing, which is actually locked down in position and the pigeon cannot lift it at all at the moment. I’ve given the pigeon a unisex name: Jules.

Jules

When Jules was put into Dora’s aviary Davey was ecstatic. Have a look:

I’m praying that Jules is female and that she falls madly in love with Davey. He so deserves it!

Here’s a list of all the current resident pigeons (fancy or disabled) at my work: