Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary

20/08/2024

Working from home today with my sleepy assistant Giuseppe.

Giuseppe is an anomaly when it comes to our flock. She was raised by her human dad and despite his efforts, and my efforts, she is adamant she belongs with people and not pigeons. 🤣

G sleeps on my pillow many nights… like her body and my head share a pillow 🤦🏼‍♀️. Thankfully, because it’s our “nest”, she doesn’t p**p on our pillow. When she’s not on our pillow, she sleeps on top of my body, or right next to me perched on the couch.

Now that she layed her 2 eggs, which I swapped out for plastic eggs, (even though I suspect she is a virgin pigeon I am not taking any chances), she will stay on her Feggs nearly 24/7 for the next couple weeks.

When this happens, I slide her off my pillow and into a comparably cozy nest. Pigeons don’t like their nests to be disturbed. Where they lay the egg is where they intend to stay. But I’ve been able to compromise with G… giving her a nest right behind my pillow.

17/08/2024

latest head count is 49 pigeons. Technically we are at 50 when we consider Gordie Howe, who has been missing a year. We just pray she is healthy and happy wherever she is.

We have 2 adults and 3 babies who still need names.

Our latest arrivals are Keter, Euclid, and SCP. The trio arrived on 8/2/24. These are medium face, crested, American Helmet Pigeons. Their previous owners were very loving, but unfortunately due to (human) health issues needed to rehome their birds.

Keter (dad) is black and white, and Euclid (mom) is brown and white. They had an oops baby in early 2024, who is also black and white, and named SCP. They’ve been in quarantine going through a molt, to rule out any other possible issues related to the feather loss.

My guess is that SCP is a growing male, and there is some turf war going on between him and dad. My plan is to separate SCP from mom and dad temporarily to see if this helps the feathers come back in.

BPS (me lol) just made a $300 feed purchase and $150 medication purchase for these 49 angels. The food should last us 3 months, and the medication should last at least a year. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to our mission if you can. We are always so grateful for your love and support.

PayPal.me/flockBobber

Now enjoy these photos of Keter, Euclid, and SCP!

PS:
I planted some asparagus seeds last year, only to find out that it takes three years for an asparagus plant to grow one asparagus stalk. I was like, “shoot, that’s a three year relationship I’m not sure I want to commit to.”
This is year 2, and a couple little seedlings sprouted this year, and of course that’s where Keter and Euclid wanted to make a nest. Can’t have anything nice when you have kids or pets. 🤣

14/08/2024

12/08/2024

Coming home from work… girls waiting for me ♥️

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10/08/2024

Fraction (back) and Monroe (front) are arguably our 2 biggest miracle survivors. Monroe and his first wife self- rescued to a woman in Monroe, MI. Sadly, Monroe‘s wife vanished before they could both be brought into safety.

Monroe was in such a state that he likely needed a wing amputation. I could tell he was remarkable, having survived something not survivable. I could tell he would want us to try to save his wing at any cost. After multiple medication’s around the clock for two months, and $1500 in vet bills, he was able to keep his wing.

Monroe will never fly again, although he runs fast and jumps high. He has found love again. May he inspire us to keep moving, even when we lose our greatest gifts.

10/08/2024

I spy a Giuseppe… can you?

21/07/2024

Baby fever hit hard in June.
(Click photos for bios in captions.)

Flapper arrived 6/12/24.
These are my best guesses on DOBs for the next 3…
Baby #1 arrived 6/14/24.
Baby #2 arrived 6/15/24.
Baby #3 arrived 6/15/24.

Stay tuned for a baby shower fundraiser.
Our 3 highest donors through 7/21/24-8/31/24 will have the opportunity to name each of these babies!

30/06/2024

Who else spends too much time researching and taking pictures of pigeon p**p on a beautiful Saturday?
**p

28/06/2024

Please think of us during Prime day! This is our annual shopping list. If you have an item on the list already and would like to donate it that is also very much appreciated.

23/06/2024

Update: There are 4 babies. Please let me know if you have a live trap I can borrow. Hoping to gather these guys in one fell swoop. 🙏 Thank you!

This groundhog has been on my to-do list. The main problem is this pile of wood from the storm that knocked my tree over last year (also on my to-do list). As long as it’s there it’s going to be the perfect habitat.

Groundhogs literally hog the ground. She’s living in an extravagant underground paradise, the main hub located under my home’s stone foundation- built in 1900 😭😭😭. I was looking at her baby, which debuted about a week ago, when I noticed she was sunbathing on her castle tower.

How can they run so fast when they are that thick and close to the ground?? I keep googling, “are groundhogs really that bad?” and google is like, “yes, and worse”. Well at least they are wonderful to watch… I can hold onto memories like this when I am dealing with the aftermath of destruction later this year. 🤦🏼‍♀️

21/06/2024

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/monet-and-pigeons/

Japanese scientists taught a group of pigeons to tell the difference between the paintings of Monet and Picasso. How did they do that?

20/06/2024

Check out Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary’s video.

20/06/2024

Cornucopia Giuseppe

19/06/2024

JaCOOzies

Check out Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary’s video.

15/06/2024

Echo and Mr. Liz (wearing all white) livin’ their best life. They have historically resided in the aviary, until Echo fell very ill for the second consecutive autumn in 2023. (I bring any potentially sick or injured birds into my house, with their mates, for supportive care and observation.) After being inside and around the indoor flock all year, I think they might prefer the indoor solitude compared to the aviary drama. 🤣

I suspect the entire flock got hit with a bad strain of salmonella at some point last year. I have Donnie with seemingly neurological damage from a strain (or it’s possible she had a stroke). And then there is Echo and Pete who have shown symptoms of the joint form of salmonella. Pete has a limp (also currently inside with wife Princess Donna- not to be confused with Donny and her husbird who are permanently indoors due to physical impairments) and Echo has a wing that sits a touch higher. But she can still fly and is vivacious as ever. She’s SO vocal.

I took her to the vet months ago to make sure everything was ok and they prescribed a pain med to see if that helped increase her appetite (at the time she was not eating). And I of course treated for samonella/ paratyphoid. Since then she’s made a great recovery but just has the wing that sits higher.

Echo no longer lays eggs since last fall, but she sits on fake ones all the time with Mr. Liz. I think this could be due to an older age (age is not known) or a reproductive disease. I have been providing her with vitamins and probiotics. This week she developed true diarrhea, so that makes me want to rule out any GI/ reproductive diseases. So today I am going to figure out our next steps. Do a little research and probably call my vet. However, her prognosis is good based on her exuberant behavior. I would not otherwise notice these symptoms if it wasn’t for my obsessive personality.

As soon as I finish building the current aviary I am going to section an area for the older or handicapped birds. The young boys are always trying to start s**t 🤣. For now they are still living inside with me and I let them out on the back enclosed porch during the day for private leisure.

We are grateful for any contributions to help cover medical costs and supplies. All donations are 100% tax deductible. Paypal.me/flockBobber
You may also call Cedar Creek Veterinary Clinic in Williamston and request to put money on our account. Mention Kelsey Dowty/ Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary.

12/06/2024

Yall- I cannot keep up with the updates. Took in this squeaker today, named Flap. Flap was rescued by a very compassionate mother and daughter I know. Flap is seriously emaciated, and I need to rule out crop issues. I will also treat for parasites and monitor for a variety of common pigeon illnesses. Depending on the crop situation, she may require veterinary care.

I have been so ill that I’ve had to reduce my hours at work and am just trying to get by with tending to the basics of … feeding, cleaning, and swapping eggs. I’ve been switching eggs out but tell me HOW there are THREE babies in the aviary today… born from three separate couples. This is a massive slip on my end. I honestly don’t know if they hid the eggs from me (are they capable of being that devious?) or did I mistake real eggs to be fake eggs? Lord help us. 😩

Please consider making a fully tax deductible donation to our sanctuary (donate button at top of our page). We have 4 more mouths to feed and at least one with medical needs. Additionally, there have already been 4 birds from the aviary residing in our indoor infirmary for observation. This comes to 13 indoor birds and around 30- something in the aviary. (Plus 2 additional birds on the way - pending). AND I have 2 that we took in last year who still do not have names- because unfortunately I haven’t been able to spend the time to get to know them properly.

As much as we appreciate donations for feed and medical needs… I would be SO grateful for a couple volunteers willing to help me do a deep clean of the outdoor aviary. (Location is Mason, MI). My medical issues have been slowing me down, and the heat exacerbates everything. PLEASE let me know if you would like to help with this project.

Once I process all of this drama I’m sure I’ll be a little more fond of the 3 oops babies and post some pictures tomorrow.

01/06/2024

Credits: Chicken thoughts

28/05/2024

Helped the same sparrow escape the aviary twice today. He found an access point but got too worked up to remember the way out. Spent my evening trying to coax him out of the aviary by propping the door wide open, meanwhile also trying to send my 40 pigeons telepathic messages to NOT go out said door and ready to make some fast blocking moves if needed.

Ultimately it became dark enough for me to scoop him into a towel and release him. I was convinced that after an hour of staring at this bird and hearing his voice chirp I’d get online and google his breed straightaway. Wrong. 🤦🏼‍♀️ It’s a sparrow line-up and all I’m certain of is that there was a bird, it was small, and it was brown.

But, I keep getting drawn back to #5 - “Field” sparrow. I’ve seen that facial expression on Alouette too many times. 😍

Oh well, I’m sure I’ll see him in the morning having breakfast with the birdos.

Our Sparrow Quizzes over the past week seemed to be a hit with so many of you working through the identification of these notoriously tough-to-identify Little Brown Birds. We thought we’d make a post with extra identification tips for this group of birds. If you haven’t already, please see our blog post for a detailed explanation of how to approach identifying a bird you’ve never seen before (https://carnegiemnh.org/field-guides-an-introduction/). This is going to be a long post, so buckle up for the ride!

In identifying sparrows to species, size and shape can be a very helpful starting point, as can knowing typical habitat in which each species can be found. It’s nearly impossible to see relative size in these photographs and to gather any habitat clues, so here’s the breakdown:

XL: Fox Sparrows are extra-large sparrows (roughly the size of a cardinal), chunky, and a warm red-brown color.

L: Next are the large sparrows, White-throated and White-crowned. These two have bold markings and are fairly obvious in the field, perhaps with the exception of young White-crowned with the rusty crown and extreme tan-morph White-throated (although size and shape should help with these two).

M: Most sparrows fit into the medium-sized category, although there is definitely some size and shape variation among the species. Let’s talk first about the easiest: Dark-eyed Junco is a plump, gray sparrow with a white tummy (yes, I said “tummy”!). We often see them hopping under feeders in the snow, cheerfully picking up seeds from the ground. Another easy sparrow to identify is House Sparrow. This species is an Old World Sparrow, and is not in the same taxonomic group as the sparrows pictured here; in fact this species is native to Eurasia. The males have a large yellow bill, black chin/throat badge, and bold white wingbar, whereas females are fairly brown and nondescript except for a tanish stripe above the eye.

Moving on to the other medium sparrows pictured here, Song Sparrow is one of the most common and visible species. It has heavy streaking on the underparts and a fairly distinct tietack in the center of the breast. Swamp and Lincoln’s Sparrows are often confused, but Lincoln’s has a soft buffy wash with sleek dark streaks on the breast, whereas Swamps are unstreaked and have a warm reddish wash to the crown. Clay-colored Sparrow is very light overall, with a creaminess to the facial markings, and would be an exceptional find in southwest PA as this is well out of their range! The last few medium sparrows are all grassland specialists and most of them you are likely to hear before they pop up to display, as they are well-camouflaged, variably streaked, and tend to stay hidden in grassy vegetation: Savannah, Grasshopper, Vesper, and Henslow’s. Knowing a thing or two about the differences in their preferred habitat and learning their songs will help with ID. Vespers have white outer tail feathers that are obvious when they fly away and warm reddish “shoulders” (this area is actually the wrist joint on a bird!). Savannahs have yellow lores and are heavily streaked. Henslow’s have a greenish-olive wash, and Grasshoppers have almost no streaking and an overall buffy wash. Of course, this is oversimplified and learning to ID these cryptic birds takes practice and good reference materials!

S: The last three species pictured here are small sparrows, Field, Chipping, and American Tree. Field Sparrows are plump and have an overall pinkish wash with a diagnostic pink bill. Chipping and Tree are very similar, but check out the eyestripe on both – on Chipping it’s black and on Tree it’s rufous. Tree have a bicolored bill (black upper mandible, yellow lower mandible) and Tree have a “tietack” in the center of the breast. In southwest PA, they are generally separated by season – Tree is a winter bird here and Chipping is a summer bird (although they have popped up during Christmas Bird Counts!).

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for trying out our sparrow quizzes! There are plenty of sparrows that aren’t pictured here (the southwest US has some really cool species that are totally different from here!), so there’s lots to practice with. Stay tuned, because we’ll feature other groups, like thrushes and warblers, soon!

Happy birding!

09/05/2024

“If you can encourage people to develop compassion for a creature that is often stigmatized, then it’s an encouragement overall to be more compassionate for everyone around you,” Sonnier said.

The nonprofit now has 50 volunteers across and beyond Chicago — including Rogers Park — who transport, treat, foster and adopt their feathered friends.

05/05/2024

Impromptu Facebook live tour of the inner chambers of Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary at 5pm EST. Kid friendly. Will be answering any and all pigeon related questions!

05/05/2024

Impromptu Facebook live tour of the inner chambers of Bobber’s Pigeon Sanctuary at 5pm EST. Kid friendly. Will be answering any and all pigeon related questions!

05/05/2024

ATTN: 🌟
You can now support by sending Stars - they help our 501c3 earn money to keep on keeping on. We receive $.01 for every Star. 💰

Whenever you see the Stars icon, you can send us Stars!


Keep an eye 👁️ out for our first official Reel, with a Stars icon 🌟

🐦♥️