Portly and Breast

Our two residential pigeons are in the garden down by the bird bath.
I think they’ve had a tiff as they have their backs to each other and are getting slightly damp in the rain. If they moved across a bit, they’d be in the shelter of the hedge or the apple tree and could still keep their argumentative distance.

(This could well be a cousin as he is equally fat)

Earlier, I had watched one rather stupid bird ‘having a go’ at a twig that was in his way. He picked it up, shook it, and tossed it into the air. It fell directly in front of him, so he went through this procedure several times before giving up and walking round it.

Despite finding the discarded egg shell in the garden a little while ago, there is no sign of a Portlet, unlike the blackbirds, green finches and starlings which are frequenting our lawn with their new families.
The starlings are particularly vocal, their squalling echoing in various pitches from both sides of the garden.

Watching Portly and Breast is always amusing. Whether this is the same pair as last year I have no idea, but one thing is for sure, they don’t starve, and as Hubby says, we could get a good meal off them. However, they are safe here, and times are not that hard.

As they waddle across the grass like some lopsided water filled balloon on legs, the worms and ants under the soil are probably shaken (not stirred) to the surface. This pleases the blackbirds who stand ready,  heads cocked as they listen, to grab and pull the worms from the earth.

The pigeons like to perch in the trees.
In addition to our apple, elderberry and plum trees, we have the lilac and buddlia, plus hawthorn, silver birch and sycamore trees around us. Perhaps that is why we get such a variety of feathered visitors here.
It is a wonder that the branches don’t collapse under their weight, though last year one did and the surprised pigeon did an inelegant sideways flip as he frantically flapped his wings to keep his balance.

Ah, these two appear to be friends again, one is bowing in submission to the other.

There will probably be a lot of flapping going on in the foliage later on as they try to keep their balance for another reason!

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