Pigeon babies

Most people have seen a baby bird or two. They may fledge a bit early and sloppily make their way across your yard, or better still, maybe their n00b parents build a nest in a flowerpot on your porch or something. Pigeons, on the other hand, are very good at hiding their babies. This is mainly because they like to nest in crevices, or, lacking a nice cliff, the earthquake retrofitting gaps in freeway concrete. I was lucky enough to find a pigeon nest in the eaves of the Lake Merritt nature center and I attempted to document it, with limited success.

I knew that it must be around time for the baby pigeon(s) to hatch, so every few days I would check back at the nest to see if I could see any action. Usually, though, the nest would be unoccupied. If I hung around for a bit, I would see two pigeons, also nonchalantly hanging around, whistling and looking the other way...

A recent study indicated that mockingbirds can recognize individual humans who mess with their nests. I wonder if pigeons can do the same?

Anyway, I FINALLY caught one in the act, lasciviously regurgitating crop milk right in public. Yes, that blurry yellow thing on the right is the baby.

Well, I couldn't get any good pictures of the developing baby, but luckily, Wikipedia has some. And boy are they gross. Baby pigeons are even freakier than other baby birds, due to the developing cere, or "freaky bump on top"! What is that thing for? I'll get back to you.

Later, when Pigeon Jr. was almost ready to leave the nest, I got some better shots:


Check the landing gear...
Check the tail flaps...
...warm up the wings... and...

...FLAPPITY!
Uhm, yeah. False alarm. I'm not flying anywhere just yet.

Growing Pains: The luckiest dreamers who never quit dreaming, and also weren't eaten by seagulls.

The goose babies are growing older! They've entered their awkward teenager phase, and they look just as gangly and rumpled as any other adolescent...

At this phase, just like human teenagers, some embarrasing anatomical secrets are showing--in the picture below you can see the ear opening (which is usually covered over by feathers).

I wouldn't be surprised if their voices cracked too...

This baby is showing off a very sassy wing position. Barbeque sauce sold separately.

Also like human teens, the babies are developing at different rates. This one has a fully grown in tail, but the wing feathers of a child:

...while this baby's tail is still growing in, but the primaries (those not-very-visible white lines on its side) seem to be going strong, and on its face you can see the goose equivalent of peach fuzz--the developing white chinstrap. AWKWARD!

Also like middle schoolers, they hang out in giant cliques.



And to finish off the baby update, here's a cast member of Ducks: the next generation

Ectoparasites, or Animals doing undignified things

Humans are lucky in that we are mostly parasite free. If we do happen to get infested with tiny insect fascists, we can simply pick them out with tweezers, wash them out with shampoo, or defeat them with the help of the Russians.

Animals are not quite as nimble when it comes to eliminating political parties, but they do have a few tricks to deal with skin parasites. Basically, they keep themselves clean with nature's hairbrush: their mouths.

And sometimes they have to use nature's face-scratcher...


...and then we can laugh at them.


Seriously though, grooming is a big deal for birds and mammals, and I'm hoping to eventually do a more detailed post about parasites, grooming, and all the things birds learn about in the middle school locker room.

Natural Death, She Wrote

A retired English teacher with an insatiable curiosity... where Murder is concerned. Whenever she walks around Glen Echo Cove, dead bodies inevitably materialize. Usually first detected by their powerful smell, they often yield intriguing clues as to their demise.

This rat, for instance, was covered in half-healed scabs... and ants. While the evil marauding ants are the obvious culprit, closer inspection reveals that the ants are innocent! The gesture of the forepaws, as though the rat is trying to block something terrible from its vision, indicate that this rat died from overexposure to a That's So Raven marathon.

Here, a seagull is discovered face down in the brine. Probable cause of death: Underwater Head Syndrome.

The leisurely walk concludes with a stop at the scenic docks. But what's this? Has this seagull been presented with a cement shoe retirement gift from the Lake Merritt Mafia?

Closer examination and a thorough questioning reveal the culprit and the murder weapon are one and the same.
Yes, it was Naked Barbie, on the pier, with the Naked Barbie. Who would have expected the murderer to be this week's guest star!? I *knew* it wasn't Professor Plum!

Duck-on-duck-on-duck action

I caught these domestic ducks illustrating a word that rhymes with duck.


Run! Run to jump on the pile!

They don't even seem to care who's on the bottom.

Too bad there isn't a bird that rhymes with "orgy."

Speaking of sex with ducks, Tom found an entertaining music video about that very topic. It rhymes "puddle" and "cuddle," and like ducks themselves, it's cool with gay marriage.

From the embryonic whale... to the pigeon with no tail

Notice anything weird about this pigeon?

Maybe this will help:


Poor little thing has lost its tail feathers somehow, so it's been relegated to the bird dome. Without a tail, it can't seem to balance, and so it spends its time falling back onto its butt, and flapping upright again. It would be laughable if it wasn't so pitiable!

Brown Blurry Birds 2

I think there are a lot of fledglings out this time of year, floppily learning when to flee from nosy humans with cameras. This phoebe, happily, didn't seem to fear me:






Parents of fledglings are getting distracted too. I was walking in the garden when I heard a persistent cheeping coming from somewhere nearby. Turns out it was this little towhee with its mouth stuffed full of bug.

Was it bribing a fledgling to get off of Facebook and get some fresh air, out of the nest? I couldn't locate any other birds around, but given how hidden this one was, I wouldn't be surprised if I missed part of this story. Anyway it kept calling from this one spot, bug in beak, for several minutes. "Mmph! Mm mmmph!"

Here's another towhee chirping with glee as it triumphantly blocks me from getting a shot that isn't backlit:


I was also able to locate this chickadee from its calls. Sometimes you just hear them going nuts in the trees. This was either a confused baby that hadn't learned that low hanging tree branches are unsafe...

Or a parent bird trying to decoy me away from its precious babies. It worked, because I sure couldn't find the nest...

Finally, here is a slightly better picture of a goldfinch than the last one I took.