THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

                                                                                   “Ella Meets Her Match” The gals who ran the sanctuary had built a cute little ‘house’ in the open screened area of the aviary and Ella had immediately claimed it as her own. Unfortunately, not long after she’d claimed the little ‘house’ a lothario pigeon began bothering her.  I call him a lothario because he already had a mate and pigeons are supposed to mate for life.   Apparently that doesn’t mean all of them are faithful? Ella wasn’t at all impressed with this lothario bully and tried to keep away from him, obviously considering him an annoyance.  Whenever I was there I’d shoo him away from her! Then one day, along came this beautiful white pigeon with a swoop top (reminds me of the boys' ducktail hairstyles in the 1950s) . . . . . . and Ella didn’t mind him coming around her house at all.  In fact, according to the gals who ran the sanctuary, Ella pretty much orchestrated their relationship!

“Ella Has An ‘Oops’ Adventure”   After a hiatus of several weeks because of the snow where the pigeon and dove sanctuary was located, I went to see my sweet Ella and there was no hesitation.  The moment she saw me walking up the driveway to the aviary, she was on the nearest ledge waiting for me.  Being apart for those few weeks had made no difference at all and I breathed a sigh of relief.  I hadn’t been sure of her reception after not seeing me for a month . . . . . . but there she was!  And so my weekly visits to see her continued. One day, using my flip-top cell phone which has camera capabilities but is nothing like a ‘Smartphone’, I tried taking a series of “selfies” with Ella and me.  It wasn’t easy as I had to guess what the camera was seeing but I caught a few fairly good ones.  She didn’t mind me holding up my phone to take the pictures, so that was helpful.  Too bad the aviary screening was so much in the way, though.  I tried taking pix of us inside the aviary, but th

  “Ella Has a New Home.” The woman who tried, in vain, to give Ella a new home happened to belong to a local chapter of the Audubon Society and started asking around in her group which led us to a dove & pigeon sanctuary only a few miles away.  It had a large screened open aviary with a nice warm shed attached with sleeping/nesting boxes and was in a beautiful area in the pines. The birds in the sanctuary were there for two reasons: they were wild birds who were injured and could no longer live in the wild; or they were domestic birds who had either gotten loose, or were carried away and had no idea how to survive in the wild.  We hoped Ella could go there. There were 6 doves and four pigeons in the sanctuary and the gals who ran it said if Ella was cleared of having any ‘cooties’ by a local vet, she’d be welcome there. So once more I had to catch her and put her in the carrier but this time she was wise to the towel trick, so I wound up leaning over and talking quietly to her as

  Some of you may remember this neat story.  I first met Ella  sitting on our fountain  in the front yard  taking a drink in the early morning of September 9 th , 2020  . We thought she was a ‘he’ at first which is why my husband named her “Walter” after the 1940s -50s academy award-winning actor, Walter Pigeon.  It was only later we learned “Walter” was actually “Walterella”.  (She laid an egg - unfertilized, but still . . . )  Anyway, after her drink of water from our fountain, she began flying up to our windows looking like she wanted to come in?  Not the best as her feet were punching little holes in the window screens!  Finally she settled down on one of my plant stands in front of a window and just sat there looking longingly in at us as we sat playing cards.  I felt bad about that, but I couldn’t allow her inside - not only because pigeons are mega messy, but not knowing whether she had pigeon ‘cooties’ (mites & such) or not, I couldn’t have her near my little budgie bird.