the wild pigeons of Salisbury beach part 39

I still routinely feed the pigeons everyday at the beach.

There is huge crowd now. However, I haven't seen Brownie.

I do see Snowflake, Galok, Mocha and JLO. I watch the pigeons fly and land behind the Christie's sign wondering who the parents are of "Craow Dum", my little pigeon. Up by Jillian's fried food I see an opening in the vinyl siding up by the giant clown head where I can hear a clutch of baby pigeons squeaking. They are just about fledged.

My little pigeon is half way finished with his bombardment of meds. So far, everything seems OK as of this post. He is a funny little thing. He follows me around the kitchen like a little duck. When I look down at him he squeaks.

He has learned to run up my arm and sit on my shoulder like a parrot. He must have observed the parrots doing this. He will walk up to the bird room and sit there hoping they will invite him to join them. He is like the little foreign kid at the playground. I still hand feed him although he is definitely old enough to eat entirely on his own. However, when I hand feed him I can get the meds in his mouth easier. He is in that "eat and swallow" mode rather than fighting me. I think he is going to be OK. But I am cautiously hopeful.

He has flapped his wings and lifted but has not made any real attempt to fly which makes me a little nervous. If he refuses to fly then something is wrong with his lungs. The vet said his lungs were fine but like I said I am cautiously hopefully.

His feathers are all chewed up from the feather lice. I check him constainly for any 'surprise" visitors that may have hung on. So far, I haven't seen any evidence.

My next project is to find him a giant cage so he can fly and roost comfortably in.

* above photo is Craow Dum's chewed up tail feather.