We spotted a pigeon next in the big barn a few days ago, and if you know Maria, you know the story. She has been coming in with pigeon baby reports daily.

She visits the pigeon, talks to her in the nest drops seeds around her on her expeditions around the barn. She’s researching pigeons and writing about them on her blog.

She is starting to fly and ready to move out, we think.

But in the meantime, she is happy to sit with us when we come into the barn to do chores, store gardening tools,  and get treats for the donkeys. We don’t very get very close, but Begonia seems to have no fear of us. She loves to sit on one of the hold chairs in the barn and look out the window. Otherwise, she sits up in the nest. She’s a little over a week old and growing fast.

A younger sibling is up there with her.

Begonia is the Zinnia of pigeons, and nothing seems to rattle her. Maria is hoping to feed her out of her hand soon; I think the odds are good. Pigeons were domesticated by humans thousands of years ago and then abandoned by people when the found other things to eat and animals to love. People are like that.

Maria has done an excellent job talking to her, looking at her, and visiting her daily. I think Begonia is at ease with her. I’ve come close and taken some pictures and tossed a few bits of grain around. She seems familiar with us; it’s an interesting feeling.

Today, she let me get a few feet away to take this photo above. When I walked in parks, I remember pigeons would get close, looking for food. We thought of them as pests, people call them “rats with wings.”

Maria doesn’t feel that way and loves just about everything that exists in nature (not flies). I can see a friendship developing.