I took this picture of the pigeons a couple of days ago. It was the first time they were both looking in the same direction. The first time I saw them in a different position.
You can also see how much more developed the one pigeon is than the other. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about with birds. I always assumed that all the eggs hatched at the same time and the birds all grew at a similar rate.
From looking at these two pigeons, I’d guess that’s not necessarily true.
This evening when I went into the barn the bigger pigeon was out of the nest for the first time. The lighting wasn’t so good, so my photo is a bit out of focus. Except for a few tufts of feathers on the top of its head, this baby pigeon looks like an adult.
I don’t know if the pigeon has tried out its wings yet. I haven’t seen its mother or father in the barn for at least a week. I imagine they come when I’m not there to feed the babies.
I guess soon they’ll be feeding themselves.
There’s a woman on my Nextdoor feed who has a nest of 4 little roadrunners. 3 hatched around the same time, but #4 took another week. She assumed it wasn’t going to hatch at all, but it did. The whole story is very funny: The momma roadrunner comes back every year and builds a nest in an artificial plant on this woman’s patio. She and the daddy are so tame the woman can feed them by hand. “Would you like some bacon?” It’s hysterical.
That’s wild Jill! Of course I have a very different idea of roadrunner from the cartoon. I don’t know why I continue to think that there is set way of things happening, in our man-made life as well as in nature. I suppose it’s comforting to believe I “know” something that I can depend on it, but it’s so rarely true.