El Nido Vacio

Day Twelve, around 5:00 PM—They fledged! I've been watching the Palitos perch on the edge of the windowbox throughout the day. Then I looked out and they seemed to be gone. Sure enough, I opened the window and the nest is empty!

Their first flight took them about eight feet across the well between buildings to the roof where I've been tossing sunflower seeds. They're hanging out there now, still together, wondering what to do next.

A little bit later: Here we have what may or may not be the whole family on the roof. I'm pretty sure that the bigger torcaza at the upper left is a male and the other adult is a female, so they could be the two Pals. (Or they could be just two random torcazas, but I prefer to think not.) The Palitos are hanging out by the brick at the upper right.

Later still. They've split up for the first time in their short lives. Here's one of the Palitos getting the hang of his (or her) wings.

 

Los Palitos—Day Twelve

7:00 AM—They're starting to stand up more often in their nest.

11:00 AM—Visible feet. Come on, kids, fly already.

12:00 PM — Now they're perching on the edge of the windowbox now, gazing at the world, pondering the next big step. Which Palito will be the first to fly? Will the other one follow right away? And will they come back to their nest, or leave it behind for good once they're fledged?

Los Palitos—Day Eleven

Bobby thinks the Palitos are beginning to look a bit lazy, and I'm inclined to agree with him. Pal is coming around less and less often (she stopped by for a quick feeding this morning, but left soon thereafter. I think they're too big to sit on now.) I'm only here for two more days—I'd love for them to fledge before I go. They're flapping a bit in the nest from time to time, but that's about it. Come on, Palitos, get a move on!

5:30 PM  A torcacito thinking about leaving the nest?

Los Palitos—Day Ten

6:00 AM— Another bad photo, but a landmark. This is the first time I've seen one of the Palitos sitting in the same position as Pal, facing out toward the word and close enough to the edge that I can see his head from my living room window.

7:30 AM— Pal seems to be hanging around less. How do they know when to fly away? Does she just stop feeding them and they have to leave to get food?

10:30 AM

Los Palitos—Day Nine

7:30 AM— Terrible pic, but this morning was the first time I've seen Pal's tail actually mashed up against the glass of the bathroom window while she was feeding the kids. She's that blurry gray blotch to the right of center.

8:30 AM— Heads starting to lose their yellow fluff. Chests still fluffy. They don't look ready to fledge to me.

2:30 PM — Raining. Pal has been perching on Los Palitos most of the day, keeping them dry. I think they're too big now to fit all the way under her, but she's giving it her best.

Los Palitos–Day Eight

7:00 AM— Palito Uno and Dos have certainly grown a lot since those scrawny yellow bits of fluff and beak eight days ago. They've already developed mom and dad's stoic gaze. But they're still quite small compared to, say, the window frame Pal chose for their first home.

Noon

Los Palitos—Day Seven

Many sources say that eared doves are supposed to fledge in 9 days, but I have my doubts. (Some sources say 9 to 14, the latter of which seems more likely.)

Los Palitos: Day Six

6:30 AM—The view from my living room window is rather poor—lately, all I see is Pal's tail feathers. And I notice that she's getting more and more pushed out of the box as the Palitos get bigger.

That philodrendrony plant is sending out a new red leaf, which I think is also starting to get in Pal's way.

8:30 AM—Los Palitos are tucked together, as usual.

9:30 AM—Caught Pal's attention while tossing some sunflower seeds.

Noon

Los Palitos: Day Five

6:30 AM  Pal flew off for a quick break. Caught the Palitos awake, though contemplative. (By the way, as always, you can click on these pics to enlarge them.)

I've been putting out sunflower seeds on the roof opposite Pal's window, but I haven't been sure if she's eating them. But yesterday I saw a dove out there for the first time. Again, this morning I saw two doves out there (and a few pigeons). I can't be sure that they're Pal Uno and Pal Dos, of course, since they all look the same, but think at least one of them must be a Pal.

Here's the view from my kitchen window. Pal's nest is in the windowbox in front of the bathroom window, which is to the right. You can also see that my aloe is blooming in the windowbox in front of my writing desk.

A possible Pal grabbing some seeds before the greedy pigeons get them all.

A bit later: This one is definitely Pal—I saw her leave the nest. (Correx: I saw him leave the nest. Daniel looked at the pics and tells me that the blue head here is a sure sign that this Pal is a he, not a she. So we know that he was taking care of the kids at least some of the time.)

I better get some more sunflower seeds tomorrow.

Noon: Another close-up (better camera).

Los Palitos: Day Four

7:00 AM—I just saw mom fly off, presumably for a quick bite, so I snapped some pics. Not great—the kids are asleep and curled up together. But you can see that their feathers are coming in.

5:00 PM—Just came home and Pal was out, so snapped another shot of sleeping babes. I guess that's about all they do right now, other than eat. Pal just came back, so my timing was good.

Los Palitos: Day Two

Los Palitos—Day One

After more than two weeks of fretting and anxiety (mine, that is), the eggs hatched today and we have two scrawny, yellow, and ugly little lumps I've named the Palitos (Uno and Dos). Pal (the mom and/or dad) has been sitting patiently throughout, sometimes turning around and waggling some tail feathers at me.

Today, Pal was gone when I came back to the apartment. I've been worried that the eggs weren't fertile, so I opened the window a bi and there they were, huddled together in a sodden lump, but clearly breathing. Pal stayed away for at least an hour, which made me awfully tense, but I guess she (or he) knows more about this than I do.

Pals

I noticed this bird hanging out in my window box. It was sitting there for quite a while and I kept thinking "what a lazy bird that is." Finally, it dawned on me that it wasn't lazy, but roosting. Sure enough, when it flew away for a bit one afternoon, I opened the window quickly and spotted an egg.

I've named her Pal (short for Paloma). My friend Daniel, who is a true expert on local birds, tells me she's a Paloma Torcaza, or Eared Dove. It's likely that there are two of them, with the male and femal taking turns sitting on the eggs. Since they look just about identical, I can't tell when Pal 1 switches places with Pal 2.

On being obvious

So I went to my first Borges class at the Rojas, a local center for adult/continuing education. These classes seem much more popular than their equivalent in the states. On inscription day, there were at least 200 people waiting at 9:00 in the morning to sign up for classes (they teach everything from practical classes like Photoshop and Excel to languages, literature, philosophy, acting, etc.)

Anyway, I'm taking a class called Introduction to Borges, which promises to be quite interesting. Last night was a general overview. Then we're going to read and discuss one story each week (I'll only be here for the first 4 classes). After talking for about half an hour, the quite genial professor got around to taking attendance, which went something like this:

Prof: Marcelo Locio?
Marcelo: Si.
Prof: Lidia Martinez?
Lidia: Si.
Prof: Bruno Goldstone?
Bruno: Si.
Prof: De donde eres? (Where are you from?)

Really???? Is my accent so prominent in a one-syllable word that it's obvious I'm a foreigner? I mean, I know I have an accent, but I didn't think it was quite so glaring. So I spent quite a while mulling it over in my head: is it my "s" or my "i" that's a tell? I narrowed it down to the "i," since consonants are fairly close in English and Spanish. But finally, I concluded that the fault probably lies in my surname, not my pronunciation. People here have a lot of trouble pronouncing it (and I often shorten it to Gold just to make things easier.)

Anyway, I've been outed as a foreigner, which would have happened anyway, but was kind of disappointing, because no one wants to talk to a Yankee when there are perfectly good locals to chat with. So my plan of meeting a new pal in class may not come to much. We'll see.