The Pigeons

Pigeon, a photo by Mehool Intwala on Flickr.

I remember when I was a kid, we used to go to the temple every Friday. The temple had a big open space where lots of Pigeons used to come. There used to be close to 100+ pigeons. People would bring seeds along with them to feed the birds. Need-less to say as a kid I used to be all excited.

The really cool thing was that they would feed straight from your hand. I used to take a handful of seeds on my hand and try to stand still. Soon one of the pigeon would fly to my hand and start picking at the seeds one at a time. Occasionally there would be more than 1 pigeon feeding from your hand and at times the odd battle between them. I always loved pigeons and more so feeding them from the hand.

Flash forward 15+ years, and I still enjoy feeding pigeons as I recently realized. I moved to a new apartment a few months back and there are a few pigeons around. I started leaving seeds on the balcony for them and then they would come. I realized that there were 2 in particular that always used to come whenever I was in the balcony. I wanted to them to eat from my hand and so I started training them.

I used to sit with my hand touching the ground and few seeds nearby. Slowly they started to feed from my hand. A little cautious in the beginning with the slightest of movement but I think they got used my unsteadiness :). A few weeks later I had trained them feeding from my hand. I am so excited and makes me feel like a kid again.

So they are a pair (a couple), and it so happens that they like my balcony so much that they made there own cozy little nest at one end. It took them 2 days to make their nest. The male (I am assuming) used to get the twigs and the female used to arrange it and keep the nest warm. Interesting how well they co-ordinate. I also started observing the growling sound they make and soon realized it was there way of calling their mate. The female making the nest would start growling and in a few minutes the male would fly in. I also observed that they walk in a funny manner. The male would follow the female and walk with its neck stretched out. Funny if you ask me but wonder if it is some kind of mating dance. I wonder if they will start a family soon...