We got our first look at the nestling - turns out there's only one, so that photo with the empty egg actually showed a successfully hatched egg - on May 29.
Aw, fluffy baby!
By June 5, Baby had grown...a lot!
And continued to grow, of course. This past week we started occasionally noticing both parents absent from the nest, while Baby stayed alone in the nest. This past Saturday, Peanut asked to see the pigeon, so Jon took her out on the balcony...but there was no one home.
No parents, no nestling. Jon surmised that the baby had started flying, but I thought it unlikely that Baby had fledged: the last time I'd taken a peak, Baby was developing feathers, but was still mostly down. But where else could Baby be? I happened to look out yesterday and saw Baby hide him or herself away inside the steel work that houses the a/c duct. So that's where Baby hides when both parents are away hunting his or her dinner.
Baby Pigeon is a hungry little guy: when a parent comes back to the nest, the sound of Baby's "peep! peep! peep!"-ing is loud enough to be heard throughout our apartment. They aren't nocturnal, though, so it certainly isn't a bother, just a sweet reminder of another creature's babyhood. We haven't missed the air conditioner at all - though, to be fair, we rarely use it and it's been surprisingly temperate lately - although today the anticipated high is 33C. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the breeze keeps blowing as nicely as it has all morning!
