Finally! I'm getting the hang of this. I am releasing both sides of the loft every a.m. Even though I am officially down 5 of my older birds, some of the younger ones have taken up residence in the older bird side and a couple of older ones are in the younger bird side. I spent a lot of time catching them and switching them back, but I couldn’t get through to their tiny little pigeon brains, so I’m giving up and letting them do it their way for the time being.
Every a.m. around 7:15 or 7:30 I let the "older birds" out first (after shutting the cats in). When they are all out walking around on the landing board or the roof of the loft, I wave a broom at them. Waving a broom is one of the universal signals that tells a pigeon to take flight. Another universal signal is to wave a flag, but I selected the broom option. (I wasn't entirely clear on the type of flag and had too many questions such as: Should the flag reflect a specific nationality? Is it a pennant? Would waving Padre’s pennant cause my pigeons to take off faster than if I waved an A’s pennant? Or would the sight of either pennant cause my darlings to enter a dive and plummet to the earth?)
But, I digress (well, technically I digressed). Where was I? Oh yes, I wave a broom at them. It took me a couple of days to get up the courage to wave the broom. I didn’t want to rush them or push them, but the bigger birds were starting to get really comfortable and they were occasionally flying down to the grass and hanging out. This is a no-no. Hanging out on the grass could make a bird a target for a predator. I couldn’t shake the conviction that these birds belonged in the air. They needed to get up there and fly, so I decided to try waving the broom. AND…Imagine my surprise when I found it actually worked!
Apparently, the broom triggers the same “flight or work” response that is present in other species. I have heard of children who exhibit the same response whenever a vacuum comes out (shocking!).
I show them the broom, and they all take to the air. They begin flying in a flock formation and they circle over my house. It’s breathtaking. Gradually they break off, criss-cross each other’s paths and zig-zag about, but they stay in a pretty tight circle with my backyard at its center. It’s hard to describe how rewarding it is to watch them in their morning maneuvers. After a few minutes they all land. I clean out the loft while they’re flying and then they all come into feed. The first morning they were probably up less than 10 minutes. This morning I kept them up for about 15 – 20 minutes. The younger ones tucker out first.
While the first group is flying I open up the other side of the loft. Three of the older birds have decided to move in with the younger set and I can’t convince them otherwise. This group begins hanging out on the roof, taking little flights around the backyard, and flying between the roof of the loft and the roof of the house. Then the other group starts landing. Their landing is beautiful also. They flap quickly, hover, and drop down – usually several birds at a time. Their wings make a gentle squeaking sound as they hover much like a model helicopter. It makes quite a thump when several land at the same time – especially when they land on the loft roof and I’m in the loft scraping or cleaning.
When I get their food out, they begin stamping on the roof in anticipation. I’m sure it’s the pigeon equivalent of rapping silverware on the cafeteria tables and chanting, “We want seed!” When we finally get everything set up for them, we open up the lofts and they come barreling in, tumbling over each other as they enter through the bobs and fly down to the floor where the feeders are set on trays. The feeders must be on trays because the birds will scatter seed on the floor otherwise. Everything that is not eaten is cleaned up right after the meal so they won’t get used to eating off the ground.
Then, the birds just hang out on the roof of the loft and on the landing boards all day. They don’t fly much during the day. They sit, bathe sometimes, walk around, sit some more, and watch daytime television (oops - not really). They’re pretty much homebodies. In the afternoon they get a little restless and start making short flights. When they do, I make them fly again. I was feeding them a light snack before bed, but now they’re eating so much in the a.m. that I’ve eliminated that except for those occasions where they don’t eat enough in the morning.
By 5:30 several of them are perching and shutting their eyes. There’s a couple of the younger ones who fight every night over one perch, but most of them are settled into a particular perch and they stay there every night.
I’m still hoping that my strays return. For two days, one has visited during the day (after flights) with its feral buddy – it’s like my bird is attracted to home, but it keeps getting pulled away by this wild influence. I’m hoping and praying for a return soon – and that God will keep him safe until he decides to come home – a well-worn prayer around these parts.
