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

                                                                                  “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’s "Prince Charming" or 'PC' as I came to call him, had had a mate, but she was an older bird and sadly died one night.  She was removed the next morning from the nesting box she had shared with PC’, and that night, Ella popped into PC’s empty nesting box and when he hopped up there to go to sleep, HELLO?   There sat Ella!

The gals said he didn’t seem to know quite what to make of her, but gradually over the ensuing days they began a kind of courtship.

Prince Charming and Ella at the bath.

Here, Prince Charming has placed himself between Ella on the left, and the Lothario pigeon who was still, at that point, bothering her!  Fortunately, not long afterward, finally realizing she was now taken and completely off limits to him, the lothario stopped harassing her.

So Ella and PC began to hang out together, becoming better acquainted . . .

. . . Ella sometimes becoming a little ‘forward’.

But it didn’t take Ella long . . .

. . . to win her Prince Charming over . . .

. . . and soon they were taking up residence together in her little house – billing & cooing like nobody’s business.

I had wondered what would happen when Ella found a mate, but it seemed to make little difference in her relationship with me.  A friend took this picture of me with Ella after she’d become sweethearts with her Prince Charming.  She still came to me when she saw me – even if she was sitting next to P.C. when I arrived.

  I don’t know what PC thought about it?  He would gradually follow her when she was with me so I began talking to him, too.  He was curious and would sometimes come a little closer, but never all the way to the screening as Ella did.  And it was plain to see he was jealous of her attention to me.  After being patient for a while, he would begin making overtures to turn her attention back to him and eventually she’d go to him, but I could almost hear her sighing and mumbling as she went: “Oh very well.”

He is a beautiful bird and very protective of Ella which meant he would always be somewhat close when she came to me so I figured if I kept talking to him, over time he might lose his inhibitions and come to me as well?  It was worth a try.  He might never be quite as comfortable with me as Ella is, but I am, after all, “The Pigeon Whisperer” and I have a mug and tee shirt to prove it!


Next week:  The Surprise 

:->

La Nightingail

P.S.

Maybe I’m a ‘whisperer’ with other birds as well.  This was me charming a little bird of some kind in the winter of 1955 at Lake Tahoe!  It was sitting on a bush chirping away so I started chirping back, held out my hand, and it flew right to my finger chirping all the while.  Talk about “Hello?”. J

Comments

  1. Barbara RogersFebruary 23, 2024 at 6:34 AM

    I am really enjoying your saga of Ellen the pigeon...and what fun to have a romance with such a charming young male!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. La NightingailFebruary 25, 2024 at 3:42 PM

      Ella's Prince Charming really is quite a fellow - both very handsome, & so protective of her.

      Delete
  2. Mike BrubakerFebruary 25, 2024 at 10:58 AM

    This is super sequel to your story of Ella! Prince Charming certainly deserves his name. Do your pigeons whisper back? I imagine a large flock of pigeons can be very vocal even if the sound is more cooing than calling. Last week I commented about the escaped Asian owl in NC's Central Park, sadly a few days ago Falco the owl suffered an accident flying into a window and died. Experts speculate that it may have been blinded at night by city lights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. La NightingailFebruary 25, 2024 at 3:40 PM

      Oh, poor Falco. That's so sad. I'll never know how Ella came to be 'free'. She had obviously been someone's pet & would probably not have survived very long if she hadn't flown into our yard giving us the opportunity to find a good safe place for her to be. Nor would she have met her handsome Prince Charming. He really is a beauty. And, of course, I wouldn't have had such a wonderful experience and fun with her. She would "coo" back to my husband because he does an excellent pigeon 'coo', but she "titters" to me. The other birds in the aviary coo a lot, though.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE ANCESTOR HAT PARADE

Image
  My husband’s ancestors:  His Grandmother Daisy May Elizabeth Young, her husband (or husband-to-be?), Fred Latham Perlee, and her sister whose name we don’t know.  Fred is wearing a rather frumpy-looking straw hat, and the girls are sporting quite the elaborate chapeaux. Daisy in the center with Fred on her left.  Don’t know who is on her right?  The fellows in bowlers, and Daisy in a simple flatish hat.  No idea why they’re all carrying flowers? My husband’s maternal grandmother, Lillian Ross Pringle Brasier on the left on her wedding day in 1909 with one of her older sisters.  Lillian was dressed in a suit, ready to depart with her new husband on their honeymoon. A hat and frilly bonnets for all three: Lillian Ross, c.1914, with her two daughters Phyllis, and Virginia Rossmore Braiser – my husband’s mother. Lillian Ross Pringle Braiser c. 1925 in a cloche hat. More cloche hats:  Lillian Ross and daughter, Virginia, c.1926-27. And now on to my ...
Read more

WORKING ON BUILDING THINGS

Image
  My Dad built himself and my Mom Adirondack chairs, then created his own pattern to build a little one for me.  They were painted yellow – my favorite color.  I loved my little chair.  I wonder if that’s why yellow is my favorite color? J Some years later Dad & my brother built a roof over the terrace in our back yard. The terrace roof completed created a great place to gather in the summer – to play ping-pong or just sit around.  The ping-pong table was collapsible & easy to store off to the side when not in use. I designed & my husband built this front entry deck for our house in Groveland.  It was a tricky design because there is a stairway leading down from the front door to the garage behind the railing behind the bench, so we came out the front door and either went down the stairs to the garage, or came forward out onto the deck.  They don’t show here, but we had flowerboxes behind the railing where the candy-canes are crossed....
Read more

WORKING ON CREATING THINGS

Image
  My Grandma Louise’s Singer sewing machine.  My Mom taught me to sew on this machine when I was around 13 years old and from then on – more when I was older – I made many of my own clothes. I made big-skirted dresses in the mid-to-late ‘50s, and short sheath dresses in the ‘60s along with Bermuda shorts and peddle-pushers and two-piece sets to match. By then my Mom had a new machine, and not long after I bought my own machine.  When I was married I continued to make some of my own clothes as well as clothing for my children.  I also made most of my costumes when I was active in the Golden Chain Theatre.  This gown of satin taffeta for dancing the Can-Can was one of the hardest things I’ve ever made.  Part of the bodice was cut diagonally on striped material, the skirt with its variegated gores lined with rows & rows of white ruffles underneath was a bear to put together! The gowns were beautiful, but heavy as the dickens!  In fact, because of ...
Read more