18 My New Buddies - The Pigeons

Never in my life did I foresee a time that I would be friends with a couple of pigeons.

On and off, I'd see birds visiting my little garden in the balcony. A loud chirp alerts me of their presence. Hubs and I decided that we should leave some food around for them. We started out with sunflower seeds. No success there. I was saddened but determined so I kept doing it.

This pigeon thing all started about a month ago after Hubs took me to a pet store in Taman Tun to see a talking Mynah bird. It had sparked something in us. Next thing I knew, we were walking to our car with a bag of premium bird seeds in hand.

Bird Food

I stopped putting sunflower seeds and started serving the newly purchased gourmet bird seeds. Nothing happened for three weeks until I saw it one evening - a pigeon eating the seeds. Peck, peck, peck, peck! A surge of happiness engulfed me. I was gushing all about it to hubs. Hubs was saying that it'll be bringing its buddies over soon.

His words came true as three flew in the next morning. I was thrilled! "Buddies!  " I thought to myself.

During the following days, I observed that two pigeons would faithfully pop in between 8am-9am. Just the two. I know that they're the same guys because one of them has feathers sticking out weirdly from the back of its neck - a bad hair day kind of thing. I wondered what happened to the third bird. It never came back.

These pics were taken behind a glass door because they fly away the moment they hear me opening it. Funnily, they don't mind it too much if I sit close to the glass to watch them eat as long as I don't move too much.

Pigeons, The City Dove

This Is Gaston

Today, I started leaving a bowl of water and chopped lettuce (this, after seeing Benji peck on the leaves of my chrysanthemum plant) in addition to the seeds. Gaston gave the lettuce a miss after analysing it from the edge of the container, bobbing his head here and there, probably going, " Veggies. Ugh! ". Benji tossed some out and swished it around with its beak.

I think the lettuce is a no go but I'll try again tomorrow for the sake of a balanced diet. I'm getting too involved, I know.

The water was a great idea. Both pigeons drank it.

At 4PM, as I type this, my two amigos popped in again. I am surprised. They took a sip of water. Benji headed to my mint plant and started pecking at it. It looks like Benji's with me on the balanced diet thing. Gaston, on the other hand, loves strutting his stuff on our balcony. He'd be bobbing his head, chest out and in between, rub his head against his wings. Show off!

First pics of Benji and the other birds who visit me.

Top-Left to Right : Benji , Javan Myna
Bottom Left to Right : A Small Brown Bird, Benji

Would you take a common pigeon for a pet? I didn't think I would but now I look forward to seeing and spoiling them daily. Haha that.