Rob and Claire's Adventure

As some of you are aware, I've made friends with a new Pigeon. Angie named her "Claire" and you can read her introduction here. She's a funny one, still coming around most days near 1 pm. Friday March 1st was no exception.

Claire had flown in with some others. She came right to me and the other two scrounged around my feet. They were here for about 5 minutes when in rocketed a Cooper's Hawk. The Hawk landed down back, well away from us. Claire's two friends raced off in the blink of an eye. Claire meanwhile just froze up in the palm of my hand. She stretched her neck out, looking around, eyes bulging, but she had no intentions of leaving me. Was she that afraid to move? Or did she know she was safe with me? The Hawk never gave chase to her friends as I am sure it knew they got a good head start.

It's too bad because we were having a lovely visit. A beautiful sunny first day of March; we weren't bothered by the below normal temperatures.

So I am standing in the yard with a Pigeon on my hand and a Cooper's Hawk in the tree about 40 ft away. Normally I don't interfere with the Hawks being here but in a time like this, that's the exception. I want to spook the Hawk away yet not frighten Claire. The last thing I want is for her to leave my hand and the Hawk goes after her.

I turn sideways which basically makes me a wall between the two birds. I make some hissy kind of noises towards the Hawk and I am waving my free hand at it. 95% of the time this species of Hawk is intolerant to my presence. First sight of me outside and they fly off. Of course this one is part of the 5%. He's looking at me and I swear I could see it in his eyes, he's like "what?" I even took some steps closer towards the Hawk, pulling Claire closer to my body. She stayed still. Now being approximately 30 ft from the Hawk, it still wasn't flying off. Seriously?

Okay, plan B. Time to move Claire out of the hunting ground. I take her out to the front. To do this, we have to go up between the houses. Our home is in a very old part of Toronto. The houses are close together. The walkway is maybe 4 ft wide and that's being generous. I still have Claire close to my body and away we go.

First challenge is walking across this icy area, which I had cleared up earlier in the week, and then we got another good blast of winter. Oh, plus getting over or under the extension cord to the heated bird bath without falling down. After the fact, I realize I could have just unplugged it. Derp!

I wondered if this long narrow walk between the houses would freak her out. Even with the neighbour's furnace vent pipes blowing steam out. She stayed with me.

Now we are out front. Will she fly away now? Nope.

I'm talking to her. I tell her it's okay to go. She wants no part of that idea. I tell her it's almost time for me to go to work and I've still not had my lunch. I know she doesn't understand. I'm betting some of you probably would have said similar things.

I decide to set her on one of the pillars at the corner of our porch. Up she goes and there she sits.

I now return to the backyard and no apologies as I flushed that Hawk outta here. I'm not losing a friend today. I'm confident the Hawk will not fly in my direction, being towards the house. If it did, and Claire has stayed put, she's out of sight.

I go back to the front and check to check on her. Yes she's still there. I grab my camera from inside the front door, and snap a few photos of her since I felt this definitely was blog worthy.

I do wonder what she's thinking.

I go back inside. I've quickly heated up my lunch and I am going back and forth from the kitchen to the front window with my plate, checking on her every few minutes.

I finish getting myself ready. I am almost running late. I am willing to accept that my coffee fix may not happen once again because of her.

I bring my jug of sunflower out, pouring some into my hand. I hold my palm to her chest. She eats. I give her a second helping as I mutter under my breath what a fool I am. She gobbles that up.

Ever since losing Dorothy, I stay with my buds until they leave the property. She doesn't seem ready. I figure I might as well scoop her up in the palm of my hand and coerce her to fly with a little lift. Finally she does, but only a few feet over to the neighbours roof over his porch. UGH!

I silently wished her to fly away. I cannot protect her all day. Seconds later, she's gone.

I tell ya, this has never happened with any of my other Pigeon pals. Sure I had some protecting moments with Pierre and the Jerseys but nothing remotely like this. I wonder if she realizes how much care I have for her?

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