Have my pigeons made it?

Hi everyone, 

So I've been carefully watching over some baby pigeons in my pear tree and doing my best to keep them safe from predators by shooing away a few cats and putting orange peel at the bottom of the tree (seemed to work!).

We do have a lot of foxes in the area and I've had to chase a couple off. 

The babies had been looking fully grown and ready to fly, hopping about the branches. We first noticed them around 22/09 and they would have been at least a couple of days old by then so it's my belief that they were at the age where they would learn to fly and leave. 

We woke up this morning and both are gone, there are a few feathers, not loads in two places under the tree that didn't seem to be there yesterday. It was a windy night so I'm hoping these could have been blown out of the nest and they have flown away. 

However we have an adult pigeon that has come back to our garden a couple of times already this morning calling out and I'm wondering if this is a parent looking for the babies.

Do they leave completely on their first flight or do they return while they practice? It is possible they've flown before but every time I have checked on them through the window they were just sat in the tree so I don't believe they have.

My worry is they've tried to fly in the early hours, fallen to the ground and somethings grabbed them and I'm so sad :( 

  • It is possible that the feathers have been blown from the nest, as you have said it was windy the previous night. Once the babies leave the nest they will almost never return. They should fledge around 30-34 days, so if they were ready I would think it unlikely that both fell to the ground and had been predated. I stand corrected on any of these points if I am talking rubbish, I got the info from Google.