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Wednesday, August 28

I’ve discovered another pigeons’ roost.

Here, at the 4th St. underpass at Figueroa in Downtown Los Angeles. This one fills in some of the blanks as to where and when flocks could be found; importantly, if I or no one else has gotten around to feeding them for more than a day or two, or more.

Once again, I discovered a low-lying ground scout, out and about, pecking around, as a simulation of eating. I had just found some extra food about a half-hour ago, so I was well-prepared to feed the dozens of birds here, nearby the lawn outside of the American University Preparatory School.




Someone was particularly appropriate today in an in-trashcan finding (for the pigeons).

I found this great bag of next-day's doings for the pigeons - 

A bag of white bread, some smoky sausage and hot dogs, and a recyclable bottle of Sprite. Thanks!

I was happy to see this left out for someone. Thanks again!

Tuesday, August 27

A cool new tech project - the self-lighting lightbulb apparatus.

I came across this video on YouTube, after eyeing over some Fox Video news clips. 

It shows how someone can come up with a self-lighting lightbulb apparatus using simple technology - some wires, a loose speaker, a spark plug, and a lightbulb.

Thanks, Share Tech, for sharing this with us!







Monday, August 26

A common day’s routine of morning pigeon feeding in DTLA. (A photoblog).

Pigeons, in an urban locale, have many various micro-localities and behaviorisms, to be seen, of expositional formations of a flock in garnering a meal, hopefully, from the public.

This sole avian creature, I might imagine as the “scout.” This is the first seeker, or perhaps he was left out of sufficient food enough, from the previous day. Other birds loom and perch nearby as they keep an obvious eye on this one.

After observing the fortunes of this one, having been tossed some breadcrumbs, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, broken up into pieces, (pigeons, at this stage in cross-species socialization with humans, [late August, 2019] are tentative about eating from ‘particularly’ human food resources.

A tentative pigeon?

Upper left.
The tentative pigeon, as one of the ostensible pigeons that might be encountered in attempts to feed or tame the birds, as feral pigeons. 

A tentative pigeon.
Perhaps the flock had been roused or rough-housed by some passersby, prior to this (most ostensibly, this type of thing does happen in Los Angeles). The tentative pigeon sometimes serves as the scout for the rest of the flock.

I hadn't fed the popular (and large) Broadway, between 5th and 6th, in a week or more, partly because of cost concerns, and also because I was keen on making gains in taming the smaller flock of pigeons and sparrows by the Grand Park Children's Playground; also to be found at the LAPD Central Division Park on some afternoons, this time, on account of there being music, dance, and performance events for the summer, at the park.

The LAPD DTLA Central Headquarters, next to City Hall and Grand Park, and Little Tokyo and the Arts District, (on the other side), features a popular dog park; potentially pigeons and sparrows like it also, after events at Grand Park, where I had become accustomed to feeding them in recent weeks.

Here's the LAPD lawn and popular dog park, where I spotted the pigeons and sparrows of Grand Park, after they fled, due to a series of evening and daytime events for DTLA revelers and partiers.

There's a pretty white-feathered pigeon; a mottled pigeon, and plenty of feral pigeons and sparrows that follow them around, as a dual-species flock in the area and neighboring locales. 

Back to the Broadway on South 500-600 (mostly there, anyhow).

I noticed that there was a great deal of bird physical size variance here; most obviously due to age, as it was perhaps breeding season recently, and this large flock would inevitably feature the new young birds in town. It's grown to what might appear to be nearly a hundred birds, or so. A daunting task for keeping them all fed. Thankfully, the nuns at the Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master and some of the shop owners where the pigeons flock and roost toss the birds seeds. At this point in time, it seems like the birds don't prefer or differentiate between one sort of food, or another. The other feeders must be keeping them well fed, at a sustainable pace.


The pigeons here on 500-600 S. Broadway eat their meal, then, with a powerful flutter, fly away in formation, a theatrical move to complement their considerate societal behavior.


One tentative pigeon remains, perhaps he just hasn't learned, as the rest of the flock has.


Sunday, August 25

I’m starting to show some age in my face.

Jay Ammon at around age 37 during the year 2019.
I have a curious asymmetry about my face - I have one Asiatic eyelid, from my Chinese (Cantonese) mother, and one Eastern European eyelid, from my father’s Lithuanian roots. It makes for that I sometimes squint in one eye only. My old dog, named Biscuit, (passed away 😔) would sometimes wink at me. He was mostly always a good dog, good in friendly spirits, especially with women.


Friday, August 23

Today was cookie and tortilla day for the pigeons.

I cooked some peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie chunks up in the oven at my apartment early this morning. I couldn't sleep last night, and I definitely didn't want to finish an entire two packs of cookie dough. I found the tortillas out on the street this morning.
The birds identified that cookies are particularly tasty, and they pursued an incensed flurry of feathers flapping to get to the inside of the action forming around where the cookies were tossed.

A baby pigeon flaps its wings, early on in the out-of-nest feeding phase of growing up. A very young pigeon will squeak "Bay!! Bee!!" in an attempt to get fed by its elders.





It's oftentimes a competitive duel between the grownups as to how the food gets to one and each other.

Today was a particularly hot competition for food, given the weather, and that it was cookies being tossed at them.






Here, at the Los Angeles Mall, there is a drinking fountain where the birds have established a mid-afternoon (1:45 p.m.) routine. I figure that I might find them here more regularly, if they're not at the park lawn.




In this next photo, Old Ironsides entrusted the food by me on the ground, as I was sitting on a bench; I, perhaps, might some day be able to adopt him and take him in on a more restful place to roost, rather than that he has to use his one-footed leg, the other one cut off at the knee, giving him a limping hard time walking around, which is important for pigeons in their societally-capable lives.

Latest post.

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. 

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