HAVING FUN WITH ELLA, THE PIGEON, & THE PIGEON WHISPERER - PART I

 

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.  I even went so far as to have “Ella” clothes for playing with her outside, and ‘budgie’ clothes I’d change into when I came inside!

After a while, with her still sitting there looking at us, I went out to talk quietly to her.  She didn’t seem afraid of me even though I was leaning down close to her.

Quite a few feathers on the back of her neck were missing.  I wondered if she’d been caught by a hawk and carried off, perhaps – eventually managing to escape but was then traumatized and disoriented?

Interesting fact:  I later found out pigeons' feathers are loosely attached to their bodies making it easier for them to escape predators which, I think, must have saved her.

I wondered if she was hungry and decided to try feeding her some of my budgie’s parakeet seed. I put some in my hand and held it out to her and she jumped on my arm and started scarfing down that seed like there was no tomorrow!  I finally put some in a little dish down on the ground for her as I couldn’t stand there bent over all day and it didn’t look like she was going to finish eating any time soon!

When she finally did finish eating, she looked around, saw me sitting out in my gazebo, and started walking out there. 

Here she is just coming into the gazebo, and before I knew it she’d jumped up on the glider bench with me, and walked over to hop up on my knee!  A bit startled, I said something intelligent like “Uh . . . hello?”

She did this whenever she saw me in the gazebo!  She’d sit there and preen a bit, then lay down and close her eyes, letting her wings droop a little in total relaxation.  What trust!  And once in that languid position, she did not appreciate being disturbed when I wanted to get up and kept flapping her wings trying stay on me as I straightened up!

She was so tame I felt she must have belonged to someone as a pet.  I put ‘found’ ads in the local paper and a couple of other places including a local radio station, but no one claimed her.

She liked to sit on my shoulder too – sometimes startling me by suddenly flying down to me from her favorite perching place on one of our window awnings.  She'd also fly to me if I even just barely bent over!  I can only guess that must have been some sort of signal she had with whomever she'd been with before she came to us?

She liked to perch on that middle awning next to the porch lamp because from there she could look down at the front door and see us going in and out.  It’s also where she slept at night.  Our master bedroom window faced the awning where she slept and when I opened the blinds in the morning, she was ready!  As soon as those blinds opened, she’d fly down to her favorite perch on the plant stand by the front door and by the time I came out of the bedroom, there she’d be, waiting for me to open the front door and say good morning.  It became a morning ritual.

This was her favorite perch atop my 3-tiered plant stand by the front door.  She’d sit there for long periods of time.  My husband called her “The Sentinel”. I wish I’d taken a picture of her sitting there!

When two weeks had gone by without anyone answering my ‘found’ ads I began to worry.  There was no way we could keep Ella and I was finding no help from wildlife organizations in the area – some suggesting I find a flock of pigeons to introduce Ella into so she would hopefully learn from them how to survive.  But even had I known there was a flock of pigeons somewhere in the area, I wouldn’t have done that.  There was no way I was willing to take a chance like that with Ella.  I would have wondered, forever, if she was okay – had she survived? And look at all the fun I would have missed, had I done that.

Actually, there was a large flock of pigeons near us numbering around three dozen that often gathered in a sort of island in the middle of a local parking lot, but the birds scrounged for food off the parking lot and I could never have submitted Ella to that!

Although I was convinced she had been someone’s pet, she had, of necessity, become a wild bird of sorts though she still depended on us for food and wanted to be near us – me in particular.

After a week with us, she began taking off, flying around the neighborhood – her flights becoming longer and wider in range.  I wondered if she was getting ready to go off on her own anyway?  But no matter how long she was gone, she always came back.

Then one day a woman who lived a couple of miles away and had seen my ad in the local paper, said she’d be willing to take Ella.  She had a large yard where she fed birds including quail and doves and one or two pigeons plus a host of other feathered types.  So we made plans to take Ella there.  The woman had a nice soft-sided carrier in which to transport her.  The only trick was getting her into it!  I managed to do it by teasing her with a light-weight bath towel, and then tossing it over her when she’d lost interest in the ‘game’.  She instantly became quiet.  I gathered her up and placed her, towel and all, in the carrier and when she’d worked her way out of the towel I removed it and zipped the carrier closed, and thus she was transported to her new home.

A little over an hour later, however, the woman called us.  She had intended to keep Ella in the carrier with food and water and let her sleep overnight in it to help her become acclimated to her new location, but she’d become frantic in the carrier and the woman was afraid to leave her in there lest she hurt herself, so took her out.  Ella sat around for a while, but became startled when several quail came running noisily into the yard, and flew away.  The woman waited for a while, but when Ella didn’t return she called me.  I told my husband to go look out the front door and there, sure enough, sat Ella, pretty as you please, on the 3-tiered plant stand by the door.  They’re not called “homing pigeons” for nothing!

I was surprised, though, that after only two weeks with us she considered our home her home enough to fly back to us.  I think, in retrospect, her trips flying around the neighborhood were her way of acquainting herself with her new digs so if she needed to find us again, she could.  And thankfully, she did! J

Next week: Ella has a new home.

:->

La Nightingail