Delightful Pigeon Story

[TAWhatley]

The following was posted to doves-pigeons and is cross posted here with permission. I really enjoyed reading this and hope you do also.

Terry Whatley
---------------------------------------------


Aloha Gang--
Along with our ten breeding pairs of white S. risoria doves in our
bird house in Niu valley, we have six male pigeons--Mahina [Moon in
Hawaiian], Pohaku [Rocky], 'Ele'ele [Blackie] Pinky, Scandie, and
Michel--They each have their own cages, since they fight like hell with
each other if put in the same personal space.
Mahina is eight, and the oldest, the youngest is Michel, and he's
five. Every afternoon, while I'm feeding the white doves, I open the cages
of the pigeons and yell "Flapabout Time!" and they all come roaring out and
head for the sky--They circle the house five or six times and then come
back in as if to say "Okay, we've exercised-- Now where's the grub?"
Pohaku is Mahina's oldest son [His wife Hoku {Star} died in
egg-boundedness about four years ago, so he's a widower--This has made him
exceedingly grumpy, and he picks fights with everyone on occasion.] I hand
raised and fed Pohaku after he hatched, and he bonded pretty well with me.
Same for Pinky, Mahina's second born. "Ele'ele was reared by his parents,
so he's pretty wild [In fact, his nickname is "Wild Thing".
I always let my bird boys OUT of their cages during feeding time--
This is anti-pecking insurance for me, because if I attempt to change their
amenities while they are in their cages, they will ALL peck the hell out of
me, and they have ALL drawn blood on my forearms or hands at one time or
another.
These Hawaiian male pigeons are VERY territorial even without
mates or eggs, and they all defend their deluxe apartments. My girlfriend
Belle calls them" MEAN Birds!", and they've all whumped the crap out of her
forearms and hands at one time or another.
` Still, we love these quirky little testosterone crazed macho mini
modern dinosaurs, and they're schizo enough that when they're out of their
cages, they'll fly up and land on me, cooing and chortling.
There being no purty bird wimmen around, Pohaku and Pinky [the ones
I hand raised as featherpuppies] will sometimes get romantic on my
outstretched hand, if you get my drift; Scandie as well-- Mahina, 'Ele'ele
and Michel will have nothing to do with such behavior, preferring instead
to fight amongst themselves, or take turns pretending one or the other is a
female, whilst dipping and feather twitching and giving out with those long
low amorous throaty pigeon "Moo-OOO! Moo-OOO!" come-ons to one another.
It's not quite like prison, since although I always let the inmates out to
exercise in the afternoon, and they literally fly over those "Prison"
walls, they always come back on their own-- They prefer doing this to
joining any wild pigeon flocks which frequent Niu [Coconut] Valley--
They're no dummies-- They get plenty of food, water, shelter, safety from
feral cats and Hawaiian hawks, and the chance to have sex with the Warden...
The chance of such aforementioned cheap thrills leads to some
interesting behavior. If Pohaku lands on my hand, he's not aggressive and
pecking at first-- No, he just starts fulfilling his libido as best he can
until WHAM! Pinky flies over and knocks him off his perch on my hand. They
fight each other. Then sizing up the opportunity, Scandie flaps over to
the vacant hand for his chance at a quickie-- Naturally, this stops Pohaku
and Pinkie in mid battle, and they both gang up on Scandie and proceed to
whomp on him for a bit.
By this time, I start squinting to protect my eyes, because Michel
or Mahina usually lands on my shoulders to start rooting for their favorite
combatants, and they've pecked me on both cheeks a number of times-- When i
say peck on the cheek, I don't mean kissing, either.
We have eight of our breeding pairs of white doves in two rows of
four nesting cages along the back wall of the bird house. One of Pinky's
favorite pastimes is to bite me every time I have both hands full and am
trying to open the latches on the top row of cages. He just follows along
and nails me at every latch when I'm opening them to put take out the water
containers and fill the seed cups, and when I come back to put the fresh
water back in the cages. So, I get bitten at least eight times a day
doing that.
--And when I say bitten, I MEAN bitten-- Pinky doesn't just peck away at my
hand-- No, he chomps on it, hangs on to the skin, and worries it back and
forth with vigorous shaking motions of his head. It reminds me a lot of
the motions of the Velociraptors as they would chow down on their prey in
"Jurassic Park", and gives me pause-- What would he be doing if he were my
size or larger and had teeth? I tell you, looking into his dark brown or
Pohaku's fierce yellow-gold eyes, I really do understand that I am dealing
with fearless little modern male dinosaurs.
Every now and then I get annoyed, becasue sometimes Pinky's
chomping can start to hurt. He doesn't break the skin that often, but
there are times when I'll reach up and sieze him by the beak, hold it
firmly and say "Hey-- Pinky-- Knock it off." He'll just glower at me, but
won't let go. I have to physcially pull his beak back from my skin. This
pisses him of, so he grunts perfunctorily and then begins to wing slap me.
I love this part. Pinky and Mike Tyson are cut from the same demented
cloth.
As soon as Pinky jabs with his left [grunting sharply with each
jab], I'll counter-feint a jab with my left. Then he'll dope-slap me with
a right, and I'll counter with a right feint. Belle says I should film
this and send a copy in to David Letterman's "Stupid Pet Tricks."
Pinky loves to box. He'll keep this up as long as I do. He never
gets tired, so I always throw in the towel first-- "Okay Pinkster, I give
up--You win again!" I drop my hands, and he does his triumphant victory
dance, strutting counterclokwise in a tight little circle, gutterally
chanting "g-g-gaoOOH!(wahwah) g-g-gaoOOH(wahwah)"-- I swear to God it's
something Muhammad Ali would recognize immediately as being pigeon for "I
am the GREATEST!"
Meanwhile Mahina, Pohaku, 'Ele'ele, Michel and Scandie have all
settled down to watch the fight. They always end up rooting for their hero
by repeating the victory cheer, until the whole bird house fills with a
rousing chorus of "g-g-gaoOOH(wahwah)". Pretty soon the doves join in with
their own version of the cheer, and "GOOP-doodlyDOO--huWAAH!
GOOP-doodlyDOO-huWAHH!" kicks in from all the males in Streptopelia risoria
congress assembled, adding to the merriment in the bleachers.
By this time, everybody is fed and watered, and all pigeons save
Pinky have hopped back into their quarters, busily tucking in to their
dinners. I open both hands with fingers wide apart, and envelop Pinky
slo-o-o-wly as he concludes his victory dance atop the back cages. He
stops, looks at my open hands approaching, inexorably closing in about his
beautifully streamlined feather fuselage from each side, and not being sure
which side to bite first, stands still to process the dilemma-- Now it's my
turn-- Contact!
I gently but firmly envelop him symetrically, and lift him from
atop the dove cages. I bring him up and nuzzle the pure white feathers of
his back between his shoulders, inhaling his baby-sweet pigeon scent.
Awww...
[If you've had children of your own and you raise pigeons, perhaps
you too have noticed how similar the scent of a newborn baby's scalp is to
that of an adult pigeon... Why is that? No idea, but it's one of those
nice little gifts from the Universe that Moms and Dads who raise kids and
pigeons appreciate serendipitously. If only everyone could stop and smell
the pigeons once and a while, perhaps the world would be a safer place.
Still, I can see how "HEY BUDDY-- GO SNIFF A PIGEON!!!" might be
misconstrued.]
Well, back to Pinky-- Not only is this a tender moment, it also
prevents him from whipping his head around to peck me on the nose or the
eyes. I carry him back to his apartment, gently deposit him inside and say
"All right birdy-buddy, it's time for dinner and then it's time for
birdy-bye. He gaoOOH wahwah's a few more times, then digs in to his
dinner. Meanwhile, I've scooped up the old spilled seed from the floor and
the trays in each of the cages, and put it out in the flowerbed in the back
yard, much to the delight of the neighborhood natural air force. They
gather round, and dig in, as Belle and I sit on the lanai by the old Kukui
tree, to enjoy a glass of Cabernet and this place of peace.
As the sun sets in Coconut Valley, the wild birds fill the evening
sky with their own pau hana cocktail chatter-- Mynahs, [Acridotheres
tristis], Red Vented Bulbuls, [Pycnonotus kafir], Red Whiskered Bulbuls,
[Pycnonotus jocosus], Japanese White-Eyes, [Zosterops japonicus], Zebra
Doves {Geopelia striata], Lace-Necked Doves, [Streptopelia chinensis],
Brazilian Cardinals, [Paroaria coronata], North American Cardinals,
[Cardnalis cardinalis], Java Rice Birds, [Paddas oryzivora] Fairy Terns,
[Gygis alba rotschildii, and occasionally a squadron of majestic Frigate
Birds [Fregata minor palmerstonii] will be seen silently tacking upwind
against the trades as dusk approaches with scarcely a flap of their seven
to eight foot wingspans. So huge, they could easily be mistaken for
Pterodactyls.
Meanwhile, in the birdhouse, the Columbidoodly-doos have settled
down a bit, and the pigeons are mooing contentedly. They've had their
flapabout, their crops are full, they got to fight a bit, and they've
managed to bite thier humans again. Life is good. Lucky they live Hawaii.
Yes, pigeons do bite. But so what.

Aloha,

Bill Sage

[cyro51]

Awww! Thank you Terry. Before reading this post I had taken a good sniff at Chickpea and delighted in the lovely pigeon smell!

Cynthia

[bigbird]

Great story, thanks so much.
Carl

[screamingeagle]

Sounds like the guy has a whole cage full of Spirits! One is plenty enough for me. Yes he does that grab and yank thing too! At least HE hasn't drawn blood, lOl! Cute story!

Suzanne

[PidgePidge]

It really is nice to read about someone else who knows that their pigeon's bite means love. Mine bites and I am embarassed about it sometimes, but it really truly is out of love. Nice story!

[cynthia ark]

Thanks for the great story, Terry! Sounds so much like me and my pijis! I'm always nuzzeling and smelling them. Luckily, only one of mine bites really badly, twisting and turning (it hurts) but I love her anyway.
Thank you for passing along such a wonderful read!

Blessings, cynthia ark