I had a visitor a couple of weeks ago who didn’t come through my front door. She swooped down from above and made herself at home on the small deck of my apartment in a modest -rise building in Delhi.The visitor was a mother pigeon, and she decided to make a nest in a pot that itself houses a four-foot tall plant. Horticulture has always been my forte, and perhaps the mother pigeon thought she had found some beautiful exotic wild-growing plant in the city. She was even more perceptive in selecting a nesting site at the home of the Product Manager of Indian Health Organisation, expecting a bit more from me.
Perhaps she knew there’d be no eviction. We have a robust Urban (wild) Life ,so her unexpected arrival is just the sort of wildlife experience we celebrate.
She didn’t make much of a nest—just a thin cluster of twigs. But she produced two fine-looking eggs, and she stayed on her clutch like any loyal mother.
Before long, there were two hatchlings—more scraggly than fuzzy. They would have been vulnerable if there had been a cat, or a person not fond of pigeons.
I decided I’d just do all my work inside for some weeks, and cede the deck to her and not disturb her. Well Rock Doves (pigeons) nest on cliffs, and well, if she thought this was a cliff, who was I to tell her differently.
Mama was with the chicks almost all of the time for the first few days, but ventured out periodically as time passed for food-gathering forays. She’d come back and regurgitate the bounty to nourish them. One thing that I had never known and Its amazing an experience to see the mama pigeon put its weight on the neophytes just in case they required extra warmth (my guess; and am sure, that it is).
It’s truly a miracle of nature to see life created, even in the unlikeliest of places. will keep a close watch at it till i see the babes sailing high!!!
#tewaryan diaries.
