Releasing of Pigeons

Being home has made me realize more than ever that I am a 'homebody' and I love to have familiar things around me.  Our animals are an extension of our children, we worry about them when we are not around, or if they become ill...we play with them and make sure they are comfortable and not getting cold...lol

At the same time, I know that many of what we have around us are not really pets, but a way for us to gain an income.  It just helps that we are able to enjoy everything about them at the same time.  Having said that, it is really the birds - the animals that give us the most work - that I am referring to in this case.  I cannot believe that this month it is a year since Oom Gert passed away, how time has flown by (no pun intended)...after he died Johan purchased some bird cages from his wife and with them, she gave him some fantail pigeons and African collared doves.  It was the fantails that kept laying eggs and producing chicks that I blogged about last year, and after some time, Johan passed them over to a friend of his who was keen to keep them.  I was sad to see them go, but it's not a good idea to keep pigeons and doves in close proximity to budgies and parrots because of the different diseases they carry...so off they went.  The doves stayed though and the No. 1 reason they did, was because Johan loves the cooing sound they make, especially in the early hours of the morning.

While we were away, Johan did some thinking about the birds and decided, as much as he loves them, it is time to get rid of them too.  So a couple of days after returning, he opened the cage door to release them...and they stayed...lol

We now have a flight of doves that keep hanging around....so I keep feeding them...and they are not flying away.  Where they go during the day I don't know but it can't be too far away, because come late afternoon I see them returning one by one.  They sit on top of the suspended cages, perch on the gate, waddle on the ground...waiting for the food that is coming their way.  I guess that in this case we all win - Johan hears their cooing, I see their beauty and they feel they have a place to hang around at...a place to call home...

 I turned a bin upside down to fill with seed for them...

 Sitting on the gate

Barney watching, and hoping for one to come within his reach

 On top of the cage

On an old frame