RolyPoly
41 posts
Feb 16, 2005
6:29 PM
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Do any of you have humorous pigeon behavior stories? I find them fascinating to watch. RolyPoly was funny the other day as I sat in the coop. I brought in a bunch of pine needles and spread them on the floor. Roly immediately flew down and began taking them one by one up to UpsyDaisy in the nest box. He'd hand a needle in to her and she would excitedly take it and weave it into her nest. The other mated birds were curious, but not quick enough to get any needles. So I put some needles in TopsyTurvy and Roundabout's nest box to help them out. I sat back down, and saw RolyPoly eyeing me. He waited until Topsy and Roundy were out of their box, and then he hurried over, hopped into their nest box, stole a pine needle and rushed out and up to his own nest box. He did that until all the needles I'd given to the other pair were gone! Roly is pine needle crazy! You should see Upsy's fancy nest, too. She is sitting on two eggs, and those babies are going to grow up in a pretty fancy mansion. I'd enjoy any story you might have. Debbie (and Phil)
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Mother lode lofts
504 posts
Feb 16, 2005
7:11 PM
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Debbie you took me back to when I was a kid and I would sit on straw in my little loft that was built around an old Cottonwood tree just watching the birds and all of thier little antics was allways so enjoyable. Thanks Debbie , I need to put a chair in the loft and just watch the pigeons and enjoy the little things in the loft.
Scott
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bluebar
40 posts
Feb 16, 2005
7:34 PM
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I sat in my backyard about ten years ago watching my Oriental Rollers puttering about the roof. They were sunning, strutting, and otherwise just enjoying the good life. I also noted a juvenile male kestral (Falco sparvarius) in a palm tree about 300 feet away from the loft. The kestrals had been nesting in that tree for years and I actually use to enjoy watching them there and liked them because they were agressive enough to attack other dangerous hawks that would come near my loft.
I had a large red cock Oriental that was playing up to a young hen. All at once, I spotted the kestral male launch toward my loft but I paid no attention to him. Neither did the pigeons - after all, a male kestral is just about the size of a robin. It wasn't until he hit the red cock that either I or the birds realized he was serious about all this. The pigeon and him rolled around on that roof, looking for all the world like Foghorn Leghorn and the small chicken hawk in the cartoons. Some of the other pigeons flew, but most stood and gawked like it was unbelieveable to them and they couldn't take it seriously. The red cock looked to be scared to death, but he actually seemed to realize just what had grabbed him and he suddenly started to bash the kestral with his wing. The hawk backed off and flew up to a wire where he sat looking totally abashed. I was practically on the floor laughing my head off.
It was the first and only time I've ever seen anything similar to that - that kestral must have just fledged and his eyes were definitely bigger than either his talons or his stomach.
Frank
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Ally Mac
38 posts
Feb 17, 2005
12:34 AM
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Not long after starting with Rollers I had 4 birds sent up from England, I kept them in for 3 weeks then let them out with the other birds I had, it was a fairly good day. They all came back, but for a black grizzle cock.
The next day wasn’t so nice but he did make it home, as far as one of the chimneys on our house. The wind was blowing, it was wet and miserable and I was out in the rain, with my jacket on shaking the food tin, he wouldn’t budge.
Next minute a gust hit him and I watched him tip forwards and disappear into the chimney. This chimney is sheeted over in the living room as we are all central heating now, it is also about 35’ from top to bottom.
I went up a ladder but there was no sign of him as I looked down.
Much to my wife’s disgust I arrived in the house all flustered, dripping wet, with a straight edge, stanley knife and torch, pulled out the kid on fireplace and cut a letterbox sized slot in the gyproc. Sure enough there he was, rather sooty, looking a wee bit shaken but otherwise none the worse for his little trip.
Incidently none of these 4 birds were any kind of rollers whatsoever, 3 were given away as pets but the kids had got attached to “Joey” and we kept him.
Still puts a smile on my face when I think about it. The chimney has now been capped!!
Al.
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Fonzy
7 posts
Feb 17, 2005
7:50 AM
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Went outside noticed a goshawk on the washing line. he saw me and flew away screaming. I went to my kit box to fly my birds and saw a bird leaning against the cage with its head off. Part of chest & wing were eaten. I was stunned, never had this happened to me before. Took the bird out through it under the washing line and behold the goshawk came to get his prize. I thought at first it must of been a cat that did this
because a buddy of mine had numerous birds killed like this.
Damn strange things happen when you have birds. LOL
PS Phil & debbie youve got cool pigeon names for your birds LOL
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RolyPoly
42 posts
Feb 17, 2005
8:36 AM
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Foghorn and the chicken Hawk, that is so funny. Thanks for the laughs. Joey is one lucky pigeon to be cut out of a wall like that, reminds me of the time a dog of ours had to be cut out of the floor as she had gotten stuck under the shed when chasing a squirrel. I have had many chuckles while watching the pigeons. Last summer when I went in to sit awhile I had on shorts for the first time, and the pigeons got very quiet as they studied me with my suddenly bare legs.
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RolyPoly
43 posts
Feb 17, 2005
8:40 AM
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Fonzy, thanks for the compliment on the names. We struggle now to think up "rolling" type names, since we now have eleven birds -- the last two Christmas twins we had ended up being named Whirligig and DustDevil. I know most of you guys don't name your birds, but I like to personalize them.
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RL
5 posts
Feb 17, 2005
12:09 PM
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Hi
I once also had a pigeon go down the chiminy when I was a kid but i got him back through the fire place inside the house, One funny time was, I was in my bedroom and I heard my mom yelling for me so I went to see what she wanted, And I had this mean old Barred Rock rooster who had came in through the doggy door and into the house, he had my mom and sisters up on the couch yellin, LOL
RL
P.S. his name was Roosy and the hens name was Henny and they had one chick called Chicky ( I was vary creative back then )
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RolyPoly
44 posts
Feb 17, 2005
12:55 PM
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LOL, RL, that made me laugh, too. Roosy! There was a mean old rooster where I had my horse when I was a teen. It was scary getting past that rooster. I think it was a banty, too.
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JUrbon
60 posts
Feb 17, 2005
5:14 PM
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Frank that was just hilarious. I have a story that is very similliar to that one but it involves a young male coopers or possibly a male sharp shinned. I was probably in the 5th or 6th grade and back then I think that along with the rollers I had just about every other breed of pigeon that I could get my hands on.I also believed back then that everything was to be flown so if you could immagine this. I had runts,mondains, modenas,homers,kings along with quite a few rollers all on top of my house when out of nowhere a small hawk came in and I seen it take one of the runts that was trying to elude it down in the neigbors yard. I ran to the fence and when I climbed to the top I seen that big runt chasing the hawk around on the ground and flocking at it with his wings. Like your kestral Frank this little hawk just had no idea what he was trying to accomplishand and quickly headed for higher ground. I also have another funny one for you that was about the same time in my life and the same predicament. This time I watched a coopers veering down on a modena when the modena flew straight into a hogwire fence and shot back rite past the hawk and lived to see another day.See you all in the world cup, hopefully. Joe Urbon
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fhtfire
112 posts
Feb 17, 2005
9:23 PM
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Well, when I was a kid I had a pigeon that I named Barney Bad ASS. He was half white king and homer. The mother was white king and the father was a blue bar homer. Barney was a cock and was all white and saddled blue. He was the king of the roost. He would eat by himself..not letting anyone near the feed tray. When he wooed a mate...every hen would go to the box. He was like Fabio pigeon. When I would fly my birds he would always land at the top of a telephone pole and coo in circles while the other birds were on the wires.
This cock feared nothing.One day there was a crow on top of his telephone pole. When I let them out Barney made a beeline for the pole and put a good old fashioned whoop'n on that crow. The crow after getting whooped...landed on the neighbors house...Barney did the wing clap right after that crow. It was so damn funny. That crow was freaked out. That bird was my favorite pigeon growing up. He was as big as a king but could fly like a homer...simply amazing. He had a two sons that were just as bad..I named one..Herman and the other Walter Pigeon. THat is my story and I am sticking to it!
rock and ROLL
Paul
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RolyPoly
45 posts
Feb 18, 2005
6:28 AM
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Paul, that is HILARIOUS! Fabio pigeon, haha.
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Bill
25 posts
Feb 18, 2005
8:51 PM
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Man, I've been gone a week and I have all this stuff to read! I had pigeons when i was a kid and I let everything out to fly, even the fan tails. They didn't fly much but would hand out in a huge walnut tree for hours. I would let them out all the time and my mom would get mad at me because they would eat her flowers. She had a rock garden with Ice plants all over it. But at the edge of the rock garden there was just stems and no flowers or leaves. The pigeons love the ice plants. I can still hear her voice, "Billy, I TOLD YOU TO STOP LETTING OUT THOSE DAM PIGEONS, THEY'RE EATING MY FLOWERS AGAIN!!! They love ice plants. Now I feed the pigeons persalane and they love it just as much. Roly Poly, we do have one pigeon named here. It is all white with boots and with just a few brown feathers. My son said one day, hey dad that looks like a snow pigeon. SO we call it snow pigeon. It is frequent and kits good but is lacking in velocity. I still have it two years flying now. We use it to help train the youngsters to stay close to home when we train a new group. Hey Roly Poly, for the pigeons that don't build such a great mansion (LOL) I took some lint out of the dryer a few days ago and put it in the nests where the pigeons have not built such a good nest. I'll put in a few pine needles too to help the young birds have something to grab ahold of so they don't wind up with strabble legs. Bill
Last Edited by Bill on Feb 18, 2005 8:54 PM
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spintight
50 posts
Feb 18, 2005
11:26 PM
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in terms of roller fun, I recall in the early 1980's when Joe Urbon and I got to meet Dan Ouellette for the first time.
It was pretty comical. He traveled around from loft to loft and when he saw something he liked he's say " Now thats an H pattern rip", he said it in a funny way even though he was being serious about it. This happened in San Jose.
We remembered this and the following weekend Joe and I had gone out and got ripped and the next day we had a roller fly in the NCRC. Pat Jones, another friend of ours, was the fly director is I recall and I was hung over like a mad man. I had met KGB just a few months earlier.
We were at Tony Kelley's house and he couldn't be here but instructed us to release his birds. I was there talking about how funny it was how Dan Ouellette talked about these "H" pattern rips and started to imitate him while pat was video taping me and before I finished the statement a roller rolled down and nearly knocked me in the head. I looked up and said "Now that's friggin H pattern ripper" we laughed and I still have it on video somewhere, I think that was 1985.
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RolyPoly
46 posts
Feb 19, 2005
6:44 AM
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Bill, will try the lint and needle idea. Phil had several homers as a kid and his dad didn't like them, so Phil had to secretly build a loft on top of the barn, where he would sneak out to be with his beloved friends. But that is a kind of sad story..
spintight, I found Mr. Ouelette's name as a person in Reno who had rollers and called him to see if he had a hen we could buy. He came over with a little red bar hen to give us, no charge. She was much smaller than the three we had bought over the internet. He said his brother was famous in pigoens, and then he went with us out to our newly built loft, which was just a shed with chicken wire windows on one wall. He proceeded to give us lots and lots of info on building a kit, flying the birds, and so on. I wish we could have had him on tape because we've forgotten most of it. He let his hen into the loft and RolyPoly, who was the one who needed a mate, immediately started strutting in front of her, and within minutes she was bobbing her head at Roly, accepting his proposal! Mr. Ouelette (can't remember his first name) said he was glad he had given her to us, that "she will have a good life here making babies."
As we were going back to the house, I told him we were naming his hen UpsyDaisy. He laughed and said he would always know her as -- and he rattled off her number! I guess you guys remember lots of numbers of your pigeons?
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Mother lode lofts
507 posts
Feb 19, 2005
7:40 AM
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That is Doug Oullete in Nevada , brother to the Dan Oullete that Dave is referring to, he lives in Oregon , there is a Don O in the Calif Bay area also, all are Brothers
Last Edited by Mother lode lofts on Feb 19, 2005 7:41 AM
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CHALO
36 posts
Feb 19, 2005
7:27 PM
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I would pay to see a roller wing slap a Hawk or Falcon.It all sounds hilarious!
Gonzalo.
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donb
7 posts
Feb 20, 2005
7:57 PM
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I guess the most unusual pigeonperformance i've seen wasa few years ago. A couple of gusy had move down here from N Y to raise exotic birds. they brought with them 1 pigeon- a dom opal ash-red homer cock bird. they acquired a black cat with white markings that liked to lounge just inside the opening to the crawl-space under the house wher it was shady and cool. this cock-bird had no mate so he bonded to this cat and off and on during the day he would alternately serenade the cat a nd carry it nesting material. the cat completely ignored the bird but that didn't stop him from stutting and carrying pine needles and twigs. it was really funny.
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RolyPoly
48 posts
Feb 20, 2005
8:47 PM
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That is interesting. Amazed the cat didn't pounce. Our Border Collie sometimes comes into the loft when we feed. She sits and alertly watches the birds, while they pretty much ignore her and come down to eat as normal.
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