Tired, but happy

I'm so tired today. There was plenty to get done at work, I had more research to do for setting up my Etsy shop, and I removed all the dandelions from my lawn. There's a dandelion graveyard all around the perimeter of my shared lawn area. It's quite hideous, to be truthful, but the dandelion-free areas look very nice. :P

I was also cheered by something else on my way home - pigeon eggs (how did you know?). The destroyed nest is now inhabited by a new tenant. This time, it's a doting mother with not one but TWO eggs! The odd thing is that she doesn't sit on the eggs together. She walks back and forth between them, taking turns sitting on first one, and then the other. It's very cute.

I'm not sure how long these eggs will last for considering the fate of the previous tenants, but I'm still cheered by the fact that there are new eggs to look at (and that the pigeons aren't giving up).

Bye bye baby

It's over. The nest is scattered, the pigeons are gone, and one little egg lies shattered on the ledge below.

I am quite sad that the egg has come to such an end. I wonder what happened?

Pigeon Egg Spotted!

Yes, the sweet day has arrived - an egg has been laid! See Mama Pigeon sitting beside her eggling. I think most pigeons lay two eggs so it's possible that what you see is the dud and the good egg is under her. I'm not sure though. I can't really explain why she's sitting beside it instead of on top of it.

It may be that she's new at this motherly stage in life. As you can see, her nest is quite sparse. I was under the impression that the collection of scattered grasses was just a nest-in-progress, but that doesn't appear to be the case...

Papa Pigeon is lurking under the platform that I'm standing on. He's a bit camera shy. When I turned my camera upon him, he backed up quickly so that I all I could see was his reflection on the glass. Hehehe...

I'm sorry that I've been absent for a few days. Work has been really busy and I've had some logos for Tiggle Wiggle baby products to deliver. Here they are!
















I also snapped some pictures of dandelions with snow on top from the weekend. Our Spring weather is including some cold snaps, but it makes for some pretty pictures.










This is my silver nettle plant. I was bike riding when I was little and saw this plant growing up the side of a tree. It looked beautiful to me so picked a small vine and planted it under the tree outside my house. It grows beautifully, but I have discovered that it is literally impossible to get rid of. I once mowed it down, dug it up, did everything I could to get rid of it. But it always grew back. I finally gave in and just let it be. Now I rather enjoy it's wild, indestructible nature. It does look lovely, no?

Pigeon Nests

I keep an eye on the pigeons at the Skytrain station by my workplace. I have "rescued" a few baby pigeons from there before so I feel kindly towards them. The Skytrain folks have recently installed bird spikes all over the station to discourage the pigeons from sitting on the edges and, I guess, pooping on people's head as they pass by.

However, while the spikes look impressive, they don't seem to work. You can see some pictures of how the birds spikes don't work here.

The pigeons took a few weeks to check out the new spikes, but they were able to carefully maneuver between them and to stand around on the platforms, surrounded by a fortress of bird spikes. Admittedly, they do have to avoid the edges of the platforms now, so you can say that they do work if they were simply intended to keep birds away from the edge. I suspect that that wasn't the original purpose because there are now double the amount of spikes as initially installed. The density of the bird spikes should discourage landing on top of them, but all un-spiked areas are fair game.

Yesterday, I noticed the beginning of a pigeon nest in the middle of the bird spike fortress. It's only a small handful of grasses in a circular pattern, but Momma pigeon is already squatting in the middle and occasionally tucking the sparse grasses closer to her. Papa pigeon is patrolling from above to chase away visitors. No one is allowed to use that platform except for his honey wife now.

The platform is quite open and I'll be able to see the nest clearly all of the time. I wonder if I'll get to see some real eggs and real newborn pigeons this year! That would be a real treat.

First Squab of the Season

Look who I spotted sitting on the wrong side of the glass by the Skytrain. He must have flown over somehow and he can't figure out how to get back! Instead, he just sits there looking small and lonely, watching all the other pigeons (and probably mum and dad) on the other side.