Parivalakka’s Delivery – Part 4

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Parivalakka’s Delivery – Part 1

Parivalakka’s Delivery – Part 2

Parivalakka’s Delivery – Part 3

Day 6 to 17: Various things

There were no significant updates during last several days. Parivalakka and her hubby were just busy incubating. During initial few days they were constantly moving the eggs throughout the nest. Take a look at the below picture where eggs are the center of the nest, moved from a corner.

Eggs moved to center of the nest

I managed to get picture of Parivalanna also. The light was bright and the pictures are not very clear, however here they are:

Parivalanna, finally caught in camera

Interesting Facts

I learnt few things about them through websites. Some interesting facts are as below:

-          Pigeon lays second egg only after a day or so after it lays first egg

-          Incubation process starts only after laying the second egg (that answered my concern during first day when I thought Parivalakka just abandoned her first egg)

-          During the day time male incubates and female takes over evening times – it is interesting and kind of explains why we don’t see male and female together all the time during incubation period; I wonder why male stays away at night and why not come and stay in the nest itself

Big Fight

Couple of days ago, there was a brief but quite intense fight. There was another pigeon (no idea whether it was male or female) who visited the nest and started fighting with the female. I did not want to intervene and just watched at the beginning. I had seen this stranger pigeon earlier also, few days back, but then there was no drama, no action.

The fight continued and I was wondering what happened to eggs in the nest – did they get destroyed in the process?

After few min, I decided to take a picture of the two birds fighting. But when I brought my camera, the stranger bird sensed me near the window and immediately flew away a little bit, Parivalakka followed. Then Parivalanna also came into picture. Now the fight started between Parivalanna and the stranger. In this fight Parivalanna clearly had an upper hand and the stranger flew away in no time.

Then I checked the eggs and they were intact. I was clueless about what that fight was all about and how the eggs remained intact when they were stepping around inside the pot itself.

Increased sense of security and beginning of a friendship

Meanwhile Parivalakka and Parivalanna both had gained more confidence and were not greatly afraid of us. They had warmed up to the idea of we being around, not too close though. I liked their attitude and started feeding them a little bit of rice grains (oops, I had decided not to get involved, but it was too tempting, and I did it only once a while).

Day 18: Will we get to see the eggs hatch?

The theoretical hatching day was nearing, I thought it might after 1 or 2 days. Though it was highly unlikely, I was wondering if I get to see the eggs hatch. Will it happen during the day time or at night? Will the parents be around or not? Many questions were coming to mind.

Day 19: Whoa! One egg finally hatched

Today, on 6^th Oct, at around 10 am Smitha was in kitchen, she screamed and called me; she said “Look, look, the male pigeon just took one egg away”. I was surprised and rushed. By the time I reached, she screamed again “Oh, it just took the shell, the egg hatched and here is the younger one”. Then I also saw the “Mari Parivala” – it did not look like younger one of a pigeon at all! Here are couple of pictures.

Does it look like a pigeon?!

Soon Parivalanna retuned and continued incubation. It left me wondering – how will the newly hatched younger one breathe under his wings? Ah! Why am I wondering, they surely know what they are doing, isn’t it? :-)

Parivalanna back and incubating second egg

(Now, this is a much better picture of Parivalanna, do you notice that he is darker?)

More later.

Next Part: Parivalakka’s Delivery – Part 5