The pigeons eat cheesecake, at the DTLA Central Library (photo blog).

 I captured some photos of the pigeons getting messy, while enjoying some cheesecake, yesterday, at the library. 

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #10: Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock.

This flock is a delight to visit (for me, at least, because I'm training them). They are currently (October 2024) becoming trained on the clicker, for "come." One of the birds swooped down in front of me, just earlier, today, as I arrived. I was positioned in an unfamiliar place, for feeding's sake, so it was especially flattering that the bird recognized me by the clicker. 

Some of the pigeon flock at Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass. 

This flock is particularly charming for its resilience in the face of challenges. Several of the birds (much more than by averages of other flocks) have visible battle scars, in the form of deformed and swollen feet, from having string tied around their feet, by former trappers that frequented the area, although they're here no longer, I seem to notice. I'm not well-versed in trapping the pigeons, to save them from their plight, at this time. I just show up and feed them. You can check out some of their quaint and isolated behaviors (although fairly common fare, for pigeons; I just felt that they could be a control flock, eventually, in psychological terms, with their progress and development in mind, on account of their isolation) in some video footage I captured while socializing my deceased pigeon friend that I brought along, and wrote an article on, a couple of weeks ago, below. 

Here, you can see my pigeon friend is being investigated by one of the males in the Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock's regular members.

Regardless of being new to the place, my pigeon friend felt right at home with the new birds, and he took to some sharing of the same meal as the other birds, while we visited. 

This bird, (unnamed, so far) is one of the more charming of the flock. He had a broken leg happen to him, several months ago, and it hasn't quite healed properly, but he could potentially heal up and be just fine, some day. 

The location is fairly quiet, lately, and, as I noted, isolated, but it's ideal if you happen to show up with food for the birds, and you can spot them roosting on the light poles. They'll swoop down and accept food, if they spot you tossing some out, in many cases. If you have a clicker, that's even better, because they're becoming trained on clicker noises. 
 

A peek at my room at the Russ Hotel.

 I've been assigned to Interim Housing, through the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, since around February of this year, after spending a spat of perhaps 8 or 9 months, or so, being out on the streets, wherein I moved out to Century City and Cheviot Hills Sports and Recreation Park, to be specific, around this time (October) of last year. I'd been haunted by voices in my head, throwing me out of town, so to speak, and I was hinged upon negativity surrounding me, within my personal space. All of this was preceded by an apparent overdose, in July, where I don't remember much of what happened, and I lost all of my belongings, including my beloved iPad Pro. I'm only now within sights of recuperating and procuring another iPad Pro, soon, perhaps before the holiday season, if my estimations are seen through to fulfillment, and, that being the case, a large portion of those hopes are already accounted for and paid, or, as good as paid... since I want to have another iPad Pro so dearly (I had to pay off the balance on the one that I lost). 

In any case, my housing wasn't all that friendly towards me, in my first interim housing assignment, and I got thrown out, at the same time that I was taken in to this new place, which has been a huge boon to my wellbeing and progress, both in health and in my work life, which is, essentially, ordering and reviewing products from Amazon, donating blood plasma, and, here and there, recently, I'd gotten in to some tech industry user studies and product use in-person interview studies sorts of things.

Anyways, no one is allowed to come and visit my room, according to the rules, here, but I get the place to myself, and it's located right next to all of the spots I would normally frequent, out here, in the Skid Row portion of Downtown Los Angeles, CA, but I've gotten my room up to fairly impressive interior design status (aside from the slight mess, pictured below; it's just that the space is small, and it's a hassle to reorganize everything. I just wanted to show folks the lighting and the wild array of products that I have, which are nearly organized; at least, as best as I could fit them in and on to things that I use as storage and display shelves). For a decade and a half, or so, now, I've been fortunate enough to, in some way, or other, have the means to develop the aesthetic of my home (when I am housed, that is).

These are my toiletries, fragrance bottles, and my home and living storage and display spaces, with some art work, up top. To the left, I have a mini closet that's full of boxes, currently. Art buffs and art critics might liken the organization and display aesthetic to the "cabinet of curiosities" style.

This is my bed, my slight art exhibition, some messy product box stuff, and, to he right, is my small utility cart, which stores some of my hopes and aspirations in which I fancy I'd do a pop-up shop, and come out with a bunch of products, for the public, somehow; hence, a utility cart with mostly miniature and small knick knacks. I have some lighting set up, here, for decorative effect, and a big lot of nutritional supplements that I take, which I procured from my product reviewing gig.

A different angle of my bed, with knick knacks everywhere, my charging station, nutritional supplements, etc. 

I'm going to be moving to a new place, in November, or so, so I'm planning on doing some fire sale stuff, and giveaways, I suppose, locally, as well. That's my estimation, in any case. My phone service just got cut off, so I'm a bit in limbo, as far as posting items for sale, since the Internet connection I do have access to is spotty and slow, at best. All in all, though, it's hard to stop myself from ordering yet even more items, and, to be honest, I don't even try to stop myself. It's just fun.

Update: October 27th, 2024: I got a new storage rack, for boxes, and I took some cleaner photo close-ups of some of the detail portions of the room. I also got a new panel lighting piece. Plus, I included the digital photo frame of the still life with pigeons image, sitting across from the foot of my bed.

A look at the lighting scheme, in front of my bed - blue, red, and violet-purple.

A lower view of my cabinet space, with a weaving loom (bottom left), and my new shelving racks, with LED lighting for the middle shelves (the lights aren't on, here), a moon-surfaced globe alarm clock and tea kettle, up top. In the middle shelves, there's food and nutritional supplements. 

The MIDI keyboard 🎹, and the still life with pigeons digital picture frame (currently, that's the only image on it).

Some of my current favorites in nutritional supplementation, recently, as seen here, are ML Naturals New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel 50:1 Extract (great for inflammation), ML Naturals Biotin, Sunflower Lecithin, SAM-e, Berberine Phytosyme, Iodine, and pill-form electrolytes (they work well). In the lower left hand side, I have stacks of product boxes, waiting to be sold or thrown out, perhaps. On the center-right-lower portion, I have a display case of some of my aroma chemicals.

A corner view of my fragrance ingredients collection (left), my tea rack (center), currently featuring Lapsang Souchong Black Tea (it's smoky), Coffee Cherry (Cascara), Jasmine Pearl Tea (traditional), and Tulsi Licorice Root (non-caffeinated) and some detail of my cabinet shelving top portion (top, right), which features my cosmetics and toiletries, such as finished and retail colognes and perfumes, perfume single ingredients, a hydrogen generator water bottle, humic acid and minerals, some other supplements, such as liquid zinc. I also have an electric water atomizer, for humidifying the room, when necessary, and to water seeds and seedlings that I grow.

I found my own personal pigeon friend.

 Yesterday, when I was out feeding the pigeons, I noticed that one of the pigeons stayed behind, while the other birds left, after their meal. He was puffy feathered, which indicated that he might be under the weather. I tried picking him up, and, surprisingly, he let me pick him up. 

I'm not sure why he's not flying away, but I took him to another pigeon-feeding spot, and I let him wander around, with the new pigeons, and, after their meal, he let me pick him up, again, so I took him home. 

He's an adorable puffy pigeon. He slept next to my bed, and I gave him a water dish and some cookie crumbs, while I'm out, for the day. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep him, for the long term, just yet. I have to figure out if his condition is temporary, or not, and see if he stops letting me pick him up, after a few days, or so. He seems fairly healthy, aside from the puffy feathers, and he might make a good housed pigeon, for me to keep. 

Update: the pigeon succumbed to whatever was ailing him, and he passed away, 2 nights ago. I had one day with him, which was nice :)

Some fond memories of my adorable little black puffy pigeon:

If you're interested in adopting (purchasing) your own personal pigeon friend, yourself, I recommend Farid's Pet Shop, at the corner of 6th at Maple in Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles. He has a variety of pigeons, from time to time, and he currently has some pigeons (Late October, 2024) in stock, I saw them just yesterday. It's a good start to establishing your own small pigeons and avian pet friends hobby, with hand-feeding the young, as the next step in having a tame bird as a pet. As you can see, pigeons are adorable birds!

The new and updated Sticker Time October 2024 complete series (48 pieces).

 These are all images that have previously been shown and published, here on iPigeon.institute, and elsewhere; it's just that I set out to do as complete a collection as I felt would be appropriate, considering the recent art work in imagery I've done, as well as examples and images from my earlier years in image, photography, and illustration creation.

My latest, most complete Sticker Time set yet - I decided to do a small run of prints for nearly all of my Sticker Time images.

The Sticker Time Collection is a (currently) small novelty art, Generative Artificial Intelligence imagery, and photography series, which is in ongoing development, for the sake of popularizing and reawakening the connections we have, as humans, with birds; a colloquy which brings some of the cute things about birds, and our imagination and bond that people have, with regards to the human endeavor, in exploring the potential that we have: a life enriched, when we have an inclusion of bird friends amongst us, captured in the miniature form and artistic medium of 2-inch stickers, which, individually, portray some small aspect of birds, brought to light.

The project is still in it's early stages, as my artistic aspirations and hopes for this collection are expansive, with regards to differing mediums, with which to present the art, as well as that I'd like to explore more themes in creating numerous amounts more stickers. 

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #7: Universal City / Studio city Metro Station and Bus Hub.

 

The Universal City / Studio City Metro Station flock of pigeons is an extra-special flock to see, along the Metro Red Line (B Line).

Wow, what an exciting flock of birds! For years, now, I'd been coming to visit the Universal City / Studio City flock of pigeons, here and there, and the birds never let me down, in offering an amusing and interactive birdwatching and bird-feeding session. Today, right before the beginning of summer, was no different. 

This time, I came with Hawaiian burger buns, since I was making burgers, later on, as well as pastries. For refreshments, I brought Sparkling Ice brand flavored water.

A sprawl of pigeons, amidst the street surface level of the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station and Bus Hub.

A baby pigeon seeks out some food, in the planters at the Metro Station. 

An adult pigeon follows the baby pigeon around, in the planter.

The adult pigeon chases the baby pigeon around, in an effort to socialize the baby pigeon, appropriately. 

Here, we have a flock of birds at its best - the birds are away from the civic center of Los Angeles, and there's fewer criminals who try to catch the birds. Hence, the birds are much more comfortable, and in their element, and they're more willing to interact with their human caregivers. On this day, the birds had a bountiful feast of Hawaiian buns and pastries.

The pigeons, here, at the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station, often congregate off to the side, nearby the planters.

I made sure to offer the birds a dish of cold water, since it was a hot day. They took to it, just fine!

The birds started to get wise, as to where the food was, and they raided my large pastry that I brought for them. 

Soon afterwards, more pigeons began to flock to the pastry, and they ate the whole thing.

A delicious meal, for these birds. 

I recommend this spot, for bird-loving tourists, for an optimal bird-feeding experience (they're much more lively and friendly, once they're fed). 

Update: September 7th, 2024

I showed up to feed the Universal City / Studio City flock, yesterday afternoon, and I encountered a great discovery - the flock is hand-tame. I got the birds to eat out of my hand. It was a great experience.

Video of the birds eating out  of my hand at the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station.

The return of Snooker, and pigeon pox, amongst the Central Library flock.

Readers who have been following along, recently, would recall that Snooker had been missing from the DTLA Central Library's pigeon flock, whereas he had been a favorite amongst the pigeons, there, since he is a uniquely-colored bird, and, therefore, important to the flock's genetic development in to becoming fancy birds, as a Pakistani High Flyer breed pigeon. 

I noticed that Snooker had finally returned to his regular perch, after seeming to be absent for over a week, from the Library flock.

Snooker was the first, amongst the flock, today, to swoop down and await their meal. I had peanut butter and jelly with marshmallow creme sandwiches and water ready for them, today, and I'd been on the lookout for Snooker to return, since it would seem unlikely that he would go missing, permanently. 

The DTLA Los Angeles Public Library Central Branch's pigeon ledge, out on 5th St, featuring the pigeon flock.

Another update, with regards to the flock, is that another bird had caught pigeon pox, which appears to be the name of the condition wherein the infected birds develop large ulcers on their non-feathered portions of their face and head area, such as their ear holes. The pigeon pox outbreak seems to be infecting the younger birds, mostly, and there's two, in this flock, that are affected, currently. Thankfully, the infection is said to not seem to bother the birds, much, except that the wart-like growths could potentially detriment the birds' vision. 

One of the birds which have contracted pigeon pox. Notice the bump on the birds' head, and the protruding lumps on the sides of the face.

A rear view on the same bird (center), with the protrusion clearly visible.

Another view of the affected bird, feeding amongst the rest of the flock. 

This condition has been affecting only several birds, and it is the first year, in seven years, that I have noticed the condition appearing in the pigeon flocks, locally. One explanation could be the presence of rats, living nearby the pigeons, and, being that the rats have to search much harder to gain food, in general, the rodents are, conceivably, more susceptible to harboring infectious diseases. Rats had also shown up at the library flock's feeding pen, which is a dirt planting area, for decoration, beneath the ledge, where the birds spend their days. I had also seen the condition affect another bird, all the way on the other side of downtown Los Angeles, nearby Venice at Main, where I do recyclables returns at the recycling center, there, underneath the freeway. 

It's a good thing that Snooker is back. In addition to being an attractively-colored bird, he is also making a reputation for himself of being one of the flock's leaders, being that he has successfully mated with another pigeon. Oftentimes, Snooker would be observed overlooking the rest of the flock's meal time, whereas he would stand aside, and simply watch, at times. 

Challenges in training wild pigeon flocks, and some corollaries.

 Just a moment ago, I happened upon reflecting, internally, upon a crossroads of various thoughts. One of them was the impermeability of my Chinese side in me: I thought about this, within the contexts of life coaching affecting personality shifts, and, with regards to animal training, and the difficulties that are inherent in working with wild birds. It is, after all, a Chinese saying: 

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

 Affecting such a sort of change, in a wild bird, compared to the standard, hands-off, keep away nature of birds, yet, in urban society, and, hence, with pigeons and other city birds in Los Angeles, CA, USA, it's still a rare occurrence to encounter a bird (pigeon) that is malleable and resilient enough to get close enough to a human who is postured and positioned for potentially putting hands on the bird. Birds of this sort (city type) are well-familiarized, typically, with the gestures and habits of humans - for certain, there are bird lovers abound, who care to be gentle and loving to the birds, and, on the other hand, there are much more shocking gestures of humans and their animals of chasing after the birds, or, outright frightening the birds, such as: mindlessly, or out of frustration. 

A pigeon decoy.

It is my experience with animals capable of higher intelligence, which are capable of being trained, that, absent of an early nurturing environment of singular human care, beyond a certain point, in the creature's infancy, the mind of the animal is fairly malleable, in adjusting the lifetime degree and measure of trust that the creature has, towards the caretaker. A traumatic experience in the animal's nurturing environment circumstances will tend to shape the creature's general attitudes and level of trust, as well as trainability of the animal, over a lifetime. I thought about all of this, momentarily, while lamenting a broken relationship or two, that had happened to me, in life. I thought about things, such as could I have done something more? I reflected upon deeper contexts of the issue that I draw relevance, here, between my life, and the flocks of pigeons that I try to tame, here in downtown LA, (I work on two flocks, in general, lately) for my amusement, and for the amusement of others, hopefully, in the future. I thought about my mother, who is Chinese. She brought me up of a relatively rigid and disciplined sort; I ended up an early bloomer, in some contexts, such as in school, and in dating, compared to some of my peers. My recurrent thoughts 💭 of my mother, lately, (absent of speaking directly to her) are fairly astute; that is to say that there's little variance between what I remember of her, and what goes on, in my thoughts that include her, now, in terms of her personality. We were very close, in our upbringing. On the other hand, my father was a less patient disciplinarian, and the imaginative thoughts I experience of him, now, tend more towards confusion and caprice, and it's moreso troubling sorts of things that go on. Mind you, this is all referring to things that happen in my mind about them, when I'm by myself. 

I draw this comparison between my relationship with my parents and the birds that I take care of, because it's a sort of parenting, to take care of a flock of birds, such as these pigeons. I also think up my available models of behavioral conditioning and nurturing environment expertise possible, given my own experiences; I consider the expertise of others, as well, such as in instances where I've sat in on trained-animal shows and installations, such as the small-parrot aviary at the San Diego Wild Animal Park's (they've changed names, since I've been, apparently) walk-through aviary that they had, where hand-tame small parrots would land on patrons and drink nectar out of little cups that visitors could purchase. I wonder about the years-gone-on potential of these pigeons, somewhere down the line, and I think about what these birds could be capable of - some part group and social abilities training, and some part, some facet of the Wild Animal Park's walk-in, hand-feeding aviary experience, somehow, navigated through the lens of that the pigeons are just wild birds. I've seen, and experienced, some features of this sort of descriptive pigeons and parrots experience, up north, in Sacramento, where, as a child, I had a formative experience in feeding birds (pigeons) that would land on people who fed them, and take food out of their hands. 

(Some of) a flock of pigeons that I take care of, in town. One arrives, swooping down from the birds' ledge, while others eat their meal, and while one examines me, observing them.

Obviously, I get used to some of the birds, and there's some of them that I would miss, if they disappeared. This is on my mind, because Snooker, the resident Pakistani High Flyer of the local Library's flock, seems to have gone in an extended leave, over the past week, or so' which is uncharacteristic, although, on one hand, new birds showed up at the flock's ledge, where they hang out, all day, and, being a whitish breed of pigeon, Snooker was fairly unique. There's a new white pigeon, amongst the new birds, and I know of a flock, nearby enough, where there's a backup Pakistani High Flyer, so it's not a complete loss, if Snooker is truly gone for good, somehow (there was a pigeon hunter who visited the flock with a hawk, recently, although I think I saw Snooker after that). I'm mostly concerned about the breeding stock, and of the birds' individual psychology, in the case of the unique, white, or whitish pigeons, such as Snooker, or, in other cases, where the decorative features of some of the pigeons, which have developed, over years, could be lost, if the birds happen to be picked on, or picked out, for hunting purposes, particularly, although I don't own the birds, per se, I know, and people are generally free to do as they please amongst, or about, the birds. 

Snooker tends to disappear, though, here and there, I'd estimate, and since he had sired some young, or mated with females, at least (I'd witnessed him mate, once or twice), there's a possibility that his genetics will appear, soon, or, over years ("recessively," as it's known, in genetic terminology), once again, if he had gone missing, permanently. There's a chance that he's caring for some young, with his mate, for example, perhaps, since I'd seen him recently pair up with a female 🐑.

Anyways, what I thought had been unique conditioning rhetoric that occured, recently (yesterday), was that the birds had started to get used to me showing up, and I'd been favoring sweet, rich treats, such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with table syrup (now, I'm doing PB&J with marshmallow creme). Some of them start to anticipate being fed, and they'll swoop down, when I show up and sit on the ledge, and wait for their food (sometimes, they won't wait, though, and they creep up and steal a slice of bread, while I prepare their sandwiches. Inevitably, the slice falls down, on to he sidewalk, and some of the other birds, waiting below, begin to devour the bread slice, hungry creatures that they are). This time, though, the really cute thing that some of the birds did was that they followed me, after I was done feeding the flock, and I was headed over in to the library. There's a shady alcove, beneath the foliage, where some of the birds have started spending some time, to cool down, during the heat wave we'd been going through, in Southern California. So, several of the birds follow suit, and track me over to the new spot, which, I feel, is a good signal for optimism that these birds are trainable, despite being adult birds, most of them. There was a bird that had swollen ears, or an infection, of some sort, and he's doing better, lately, as well. 

The pigeon handi-crafts project(s) page: crafting pigeon folk art. (Updating)

Those of you who visit my blog, here, regularly, would easily recall some of the latest iPigeon pigeon fan art I've posted, over on my "History of Art" (with pigeons included) slight art exhibition page. I'm making attempts, or beginning to, at least, towards making some of these generative AI visions and aspirations, in art: folk art, for real. This means that I'll have to whet my chops on some new, to me, craft genres, such as crocheting, which I've already begun, having obtained a practice loom, to up my skills in weaving, in general, along with some fancy feather-ful yarn, which I just now found online, after coming across some chenille yarn pumpkins, which I found to be both amusing as well as inspiring, within this context. Who knows how far this crafting could go, and what would it look like, if I never did any of it, myself? I figure, I'm in a good place to start, somewhere, and I procured some messy, fanciful yarn, as a gesture towards equipping myself with some necessary interpretive tools and material resources to work with, for dedicating myself, and some time invested, in to creating these crafting folk art projects, which, hopefully, end up looking like birds!

My project practice loom, which I obtained from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6R7PCSH

An adorable assortment of feathery yarn, discovered via Google Shopping, after browsing some yarn inspiration found on Amazon. Apparently, a 90% discount off of the regular price, on Temu!

The pumpkins that inspired it all (nearly; I'd been on a folk art kick, recently, and I was attracted by this product on Amazon, and I almost picked up a set, myself, for analysis).

A closer look at the material I'll be acquiring; I purchased three sets, and got free shipping, on Temu, with an exclusive buyer's offer!

There'll be more to come, as I document my progress in creating these handi-crafts, over time. It'll give me a productive and neat creative project to work on! So far, I haven't really found any sort of template I can work from, so I have to gather sparse resources and work on my raw technique, developing skills that, hopefully, some day, equate to that I can create pigeon yarn-crafts (I thought, initially, that I would work with raffia, mimicking the initial folk art pigeons I had generated on my art history page, on this blog). I had even procured a clump of dried hay grass to work with, which I found, while out buying food for the birds' next day's meal, one night.

A clump of tall hay grass that I found; perhaps suitable to try my hand at creating raffia folk art work, I felt. I took it home with me, since I found the notion serendipitous.

I'll keep this blog article updated, in due time, as I work on these projects, and hone my skills in this craft genre.