I am very fortunate. I live on the 29th floor of a tower block and balconies only start on the 29th floor. It's a precious piece of private outdoor space where I have a couple of chairs, a few plants, some lanterns and some very determined squatters.
I started hearing them, cooing and billing and saw them gathering a few twigs together in a planter. I shooed them off, I even, around Holi, squirted them with a handy water pistol. To no avail, within a few days these appeared:
Pigeons, it seems, have minimalistic nesting requirements.
They settled in, one during the day, the other at night. A few days later the eggs disappeared crows I expect.
And so the cycle began, fluttering and billing, a few more leaves and a couple of eggs would appear only to be gone again. This has happened five times to date and still they return to the same spot.
Currently, there's a pair of eggs which have been sat on for nearly two weeks , a record and I am rather hoping there will be squabs- but one of them is cracked. They may not be the brightest birds out there but you have to hand it to them for their bloody mindedness.
I started hearing them, cooing and billing and saw them gathering a few twigs together in a planter. I shooed them off, I even, around Holi, squirted them with a handy water pistol. To no avail, within a few days these appeared:
Pigeons, it seems, have minimalistic nesting requirements.
They settled in, one during the day, the other at night. A few days later the eggs disappeared crows I expect.
And so the cycle began, fluttering and billing, a few more leaves and a couple of eggs would appear only to be gone again. This has happened five times to date and still they return to the same spot.
Currently, there's a pair of eggs which have been sat on for nearly two weeks , a record and I am rather hoping there will be squabs- but one of them is cracked. They may not be the brightest birds out there but you have to hand it to them for their bloody mindedness.
