Son of Pierre?

While celebrating Pierre's 3 year anniversary on Tuesday, spoiling him as I do, I took notice to a young Pigeon standing near us. He was watching the goings on, tilting his head from side to side, and really did have a look of curiosity about him. He was in a flock of about 8 or 10 birds, and even though he looked like many of the others being an overall dark bird and nothing unique about him physically, that look of wonder to him got my attention. I threw some corn down to him and the larger birds just pushed him aside in the feast. I made a few efforts to ensure he got some grub despite the bullying.

Next day, July 22 (for the record), I am outside with Pierre and the missus once again. They are enjoying breakfast at my hand. I suddenly feel a little nipping at my ankle. Then something tugging on my shoelace. I look down and without a doubt I know it's the same young bird.

He's now looking up at me.

He takes flight up to me, lands on the waist line of my shorts, trying to hang on there. He's flapping away like crazy, looking at me and finally lets go as this isn't a place to try and get comfortable. If he wanted my attention, he certainly got it now.

Moments later he takes flight again and now lands on my head.

Pierre isn't pleased about this and starts one of his tantrums. The missus continues to eat, cleaning up the last of the sunflower chips from my hand.

The young bird isn't quite sure what to do now.

Pierre gets aggressive and tries to chase off the bird. Food gets gobbled up and off goes the missus to the bird bath. Pierre decides to follow.

The young bird may have saw this as an opportunity and now went for my shoulder. He lands and looks me in the face. He vocalizes to me, nibbles at my nose, walks the length of my arm from shoulder to hand and back. He's still talking to me. Another walk to my hand, he nibbles on my finger tips. I break out some seed for him and he eats. I'm wondering why I don't have a camera on me for this.

I somehow get him to leave my arm and wait on a tree branch while I went inside... for a camera.

I return, put my hand out and he comes right to me. He begins the vocalizing once again, walking hand to shoulder and back. I feed him again, I take some photos and a video you can see here.

I'm wondering if he could be one of Pierre's kids? It is possible although I will never know for certain. I don't think the love of a parent sticks with a Pigeon once the kids are out flying with the flock. And definitely not with my boy. There are days where food is more important to him than his mate and he will kick her out of the way in an instant if he's exceptionally hungry.

A name for him will come at some point. I recon once Angie meets him. She likes to name them, and really I am out of names for my flock. It is too difficult to keep track with a few who look way too similar and usually I can only tell once they are on hand with me.

Say "hello" to ????

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3 Years with Pierre

Happy Anniversary to Pierre!

3 years ago today he flew into our yard, walked the length of it, hopped up the deck steps and jumped into the laps of Angie and I while we enjoyed our first morning coffee.

We both looked at him, wondering what the heck was up with this bird. He spent the weekend with us out back, and even entertained us and friends during a backyard BBQ.

And who knew that this was going to turn into a unique friendship between him and I? I sure didn't. But over time, I knew he was special and he wasn't going away. We have a bond that goes beyond the food offerings in my hand. Anyone who has followed my blog over the years, or the countless photos on Facebook, knows this to be true.

The life of a Pigeon is tough. A good sized bird (good eating for a bird of prey) with little defense other than some great maneuverability in flight when speed is not enough. They really are dependent on us humans for survival. They find roosts in the structures we create and they eat what we discard. To many, the Pigeon is a pest bird and deserves to die in the talons of a Hawk or Falcon. Some who cannot wait for nature to take its course on the Pigeons do horrible things to rid of them from illegal shooting to poisoning. I remember years ago seeing someone walking through a downtown park and trying to kick the numerous Pigeons on the path. The man cursed loudly at the birds. No bird was hurt in that moment and the guy looked like a total idiot to others.

I can admit I was not a big fan of the birds back in the early days of backyard bird feeding. I didn't hate them. I would never hurt them. I was just annoyed at their backyard bird feeder etiquette. Over time I learned to live with the Pigeons, and changed how things were done out back... different feeders and different seeds. Feeders less accessible to these big birds (ones they cannot grab on to) and better quality bird seed not full of junk and filler (the cheapest stuff you can buy at a grocery store or Canadian Tire as an example are just full of crap the other birds will throw to the ground). I learned to accept them, live with them and over time enjoy them. Pierre certainly helped with that.

Pigeons are actually quite intellectual. They are very personable too. Of course having Pierre come right to my hand allows me to see them differently than most. As a few of his flock figured out what he and I had going on, I got know more of them as individuals too. All with their own personalities and relationships with other birds in the flock.

Pierre is the longest surviving bird in his flock, of the ones I recognize anyway. I plan to do a blog on the individuals over the years as a few are no longer with us. And I know the day will come when Pierre will be a bird of the past as well. I do my best to look out for him while he is visiting. He is very well fed as you can imagine. Coming to my hand, he does not have to fight for food with the others. I spoil him rotten. But I can't always protect him as he is a wild bird. He comes and goes as he chooses. He has many dangers in daily routines and even coming to our yard, the threat of a bird of a prey or some free roaming cat looms. Even if he avoids all such dangers in his life, eventually age will catch up with him. Nothing lives forever.

I enjoy every visit we have together. From our personal feeding moments to just watching him as he hangs around our property, mingling with the other Pigeons and acting like a bunch of people at a social. I find peace the days he chooses to nap in our trees or on lawn. I laugh when he enjoys the bird bath just a little too much, spending lengthy amounts of time splashing about.

Watching him and his girl "the missus" over the kitchen roof, enjoying the warm sun on the roof shingles.

He's been around days when I needed him just to be with me, as time with animals is great therapy. Not that there is any short supply of animals inside or outside of our home but he is one of the special ones.

I pride myself on knowing how much of a positive impact I have had on him. I've made many of his days much easier, never going hungry, and ensuring he is stuffed to the eyeballs on the coldest of days even as it feels my fingers are going to fall off from the chill.

Not everyone has been fortunate enough to meet Pierre while visiting us. For those who have been *blessed*, he does leave them with a changing moment in their life. I guess the most stand out story of this is the Global news reporter Laura Zilke who came here in January 2014 to do a story on helping the birds through a harsh winter. I will attach the blog link here. But a long story short, after Pierre arrived near the end of the Global peeps time here, and he landed in her hand for a feeding... Laura thanked me for the amazing opportunity, saying how they do so many terrible stories day in, day out of tragedies, this was special, uplifting and something she would not forget. Over a year later there is still a little chit chat regarding Pierre between Laura and I on Twitter.

I can go on and on about Pierre. A lot of stuff that I have said in other blogs.

I will end this with "Happy Anniversary Pierre! Let's have another great year together!"

A couple video links from this summer. Tantrum video. Just us video.

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Pierre turns 30!

This past weekend Pierre celebrated another milestone with us... 30 months of coming to visit. Two and a half years! Why do I mark these things? I think it's pretty cool to know how long some of our unique backyard buds have been with us.

But the day before his special day, he came pretty close to not seeing the next.

Friday I was out back before work. A cold January day, the birds were hungry and coming in like crazy for some grub. The hand feeders were all squabbling to get at me for some finer dining including shelled peanut bits and sunflower chips instead of the cracked corn on the old bench. Lately the Pigeons have been stealth like due to the Hawk visitors. But without a sighting in a few weeks, I guess everyone has relaxed. Lots of commotion for many minutes when suddenly a Blue Jay let out an alarm call, and all the birds jetted off in various directions. Smaller birds took cover in the conifers and discarded Christmas trees, the Pigeons separated into smaller groups going in various directions. My focus was on Pierre since he just left my hand. He and 7 or 8 others went straight out through the back, making a turn north/west before doing a circle and heading south/east to their suspected roost. But as they went down to the back of the yard, a Cooper's Hawk was rocketing in, coming from the east, which put them all in his sights. The whole ordeal took mere seconds but felt a lot longer as I stood and watched, unable to do anything.

It was something to witness as the Hawk was almost on my Pigeon buds, close enough that the talons were out and about to grab one of them. At this point I could not tell who was in tow with the bunch but the last Pigeon narrowly escaped being lunch for this accipiter.

And honestly, I don't know what I would have done if the Hawk brought one down right there in front of me. I may have acted out in upset fearing it was Pierre. Normally I wouldn't, the Hawk worked for his meal, the other creature is dead or better off at this point, and I let nature take it's course. Let's leave it up to wonder and mystery, and hope it doesn't happen.

I had to leave for work and knew that would be it for the day with my buds coming in.

Saturday comes, it's Pierre's special day and I really did not expect to see him after that near miss. But early afternoon there he was with his flock.

Pierre always stands out.

They all got a good feed from Angie and I. She even had some one on one with Pierre; not surprising but with her work hours, she doesn't see Pierre nearly as often as I do. I'm only seeing him 2 or 3 times a week this winter which I figure is due to the Hawks.

By March the Hawk visits fade out for the most part, Cooper's and Sharp-shins go nesting wherever (not around here it seems). The Red-tails still remain along the rail line which Pierre and the gang must cross to get to us. But I expect more frequency with his visits again.

I'm already looking ahead to the 3 year anniversary in July.

This year I am even marking the visits from Pierre on the calendar. He's older now. I can see it. He may be wiser and physically larger than many of the others but his spunk isn't there like it once was. He takes some good shit kickings from the younger birds. I always look out for him though. Whenever he comes to visit, he gets special treatment. I ensure he has a good peaceful meal, hand feeding him and keeping him close to my body... the others won't dare try and knock him off from this position. None of them have that level of comfort with me like he does.

I'm not all doom and gloom about this with tracking his visits. It's a reality that one day he won't be here with us. A few times I really thought he was gone with his lengthy absences, sometimes gone for more days than ever before. So I embrace our visits. I have no idea how old he is. 30 months plus ???

Some of you may enjoy this blog while others may roll their eyes. He's got as many fans as he does who don't care for him and his kind. Funny how at times it's just so out of the blue for someone to come and ask about him, people I don't expect this from, co-workers or acquaintances, heck even a stranger one day at the nearby Tim Horton's who recognized me from that Global News piece last winter all asking how he is, if he's still coming around. Then the haters chime in at other times constantly warning me about Pigeons carrying many diseases, jokes about bird flu, I am probably hated by neighbours and these birds aren't nothing more than pests and better off in the clutches of a bird of prey. It's the same old crap and I just ignore them now because obviously their attitudes will never change. I just joke that they are jealous that they can't make friends with animals.

Well a bunch of them just flew in. I think it's time to end this blog.

Cheers!

Here's a few fun phone photos from the last while...

Meadow likes Pierre when he's not on me, taking my attention.

We sure have our moments.  And through that window in the back, the lady next door is highly entertained.  She thinks Pierre is a real character and even took him for a walk about her property one morning.

Pierre embraces our encounters as well.

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