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03/29/2004 Archived Entry: "Plastic Egg Trick"

For nearly the past month two of my pigeons, Soren and Marie, have been incubating plastic eggs. I did a little switcheroo on them and threw out the real eggs. The birds seem to get aggressive when I just take the eggs. Anyway they really fell for the plastic imposters. Today they just stopped nesting. It's like they suddenly figured it out. I was sort of hoping they would just continue caring for the white orbs of plastic forever. At the same time I was feeling guilty about fooling them.



Of course now that they're not distracted by eggs, there's lots of mating going on. Springtime! As you walk around and see pigeons wandering about, notice how much cooing and tail-dragging is going on. The male making his little noises around the female getting her in the mood. Though it looks like the males are harassing the females, it seems to be all part of the fun for both of them. Pigeons mate for life, so much of the time you're seeing the equivalent of a husband taking his wife out for a good time. If you're lucky, you'll see them mate, a somewhat awkward maneuver resembling leap-frogging. There is usually some after sex strutting about from both the male and female.

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