Pair of Pigeons Lavish Affection on Adopted Ball

For many months, the old rubber ball lay on the flat roof that extends over the drive-up teller windows of the Farmers and Merchants Bank building on Del Obispo Street in San Juan Capistrano.

No one knows how it got there. No one ever attempted to remove it. It has turned gray with weathering. It was a forgotten item, unwanted, uncared for.

Until a few days ago.

That’s when the ball was adopted by a pair of pigeons. They take turns sitting on it. They spend their time by constantly pecking it gently to clean it, then settling down on it, making sure it is sheltered under a wing.

Workers watching from nearby offices are fascinated.

But wildlife expert Greg Hickman is hysterical with laughter.

“What does that say about pigeons?” he said between giggles. “Pigeons are dumb.”

“Sure, professional breeders use artificial eggs to encourage canaries or chickens or whatever, but I’ve never heard of wild pigeons trying to hatch a tennis ball,” he said.

Hickman, who heads the wildlife training program for the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program in Anaheim, said, still laughing:

“Pigeons are great fliers, but they really don’t have much going for them in the brain department.

“What does this tennis ball hatching indicate? It shows, for one thing, that some of the people who call me up and ask how to get rid of bothersome pigeons certainly ought not to admit they’ve been outsmarted by these birds.”