Ever since we have gotten here, Ross and I have been having this issue, with having an unwanted spectator peering in on our day to day comings and goings. Even though we are up on the eighth floor where you think you would be safe, he is constantly coming to peer in through our windows to see what we are up to.
Explanation: His name is now Marshal and his is a pigeon! Sorry for the slight melodrama of my introduction but somehow it seemed necessary to fully drag my readers in. After all, this is a story about a simple pigeon and had I disclosed that at first, I may have lost your attention. Anyway, I have named him Marshal and his is a red-eyed, dark grey-coloured pigeon, with a crescent moon shaped white mark at the edge of his beak and he loves to sit on our window sill and while pretending to not pay attention to what we are doing, occasionally crane his little neck, and stand tall enough, so that he can peer in through our window at us! The little snoop has been spotted now about 4 or 5 times going through this routine, probably whistling to himself and pretending to look out over the park below us, but really he is there to monitor us (or marshal us, hence his name) . . . perhaps he is former KGB? We were able to snap a couple of pictures of him on the last sighting of him so I will attach one, it’s not very clear because of the grime on our windows, but you will get the idea.
Now that I am on the topic of animals, it might interest some people to know: that aside from the occasional smaller bird, pigeons have been the only “wildlife” we have seen in St. Petersburg. I guess maybe because they are hearty scavengers who can survive the winter here, and probably since any other birds that might ordinarily live here are all south for the winter in Sochi or some other such paradise on the Black Sea. At any rate, just a little observation. We have however seen many, many dogs! For some reason, everyone here has one, and one of our professors explains that it is because a) no one had enough money or food to be able to have dogs before, so they are kind of a status symbol in a way b)they wanted them originally for security c) and because people no longer have to live in communal apartments they actually have some space for pets. Another observation here, despite everyone living in apartments (no one has a detached house here like people have in North America, most people live in tall apartment buildings), is that there are dogs of all sizes. We have seen poodles in carrying bags, Dachshunds wading around in the snow, Dobermans, and even a brindled Great Dane (my favorite!) the other day while walking through the park on the way home. (Elisa we have even seen quite a few of Foxy’s cousins, it appears as though the Finish Spitz is a popular breed here) Most of the pets we have seen look as though they are well taken care of too, some wearing coats others fitted with boots, but occasionally we see rather sad looking ones which I try to forget about.
Explanation: His name is now Marshal and his is a pigeon! Sorry for the slight melodrama of my introduction but somehow it seemed necessary to fully drag my readers in. After all, this is a story about a simple pigeon and had I disclosed that at first, I may have lost your attention. Anyway, I have named him Marshal and his is a red-eyed, dark grey-coloured pigeon, with a crescent moon shaped white mark at the edge of his beak and he loves to sit on our window sill and while pretending to not pay attention to what we are doing, occasionally crane his little neck, and stand tall enough, so that he can peer in through our window at us! The little snoop has been spotted now about 4 or 5 times going through this routine, probably whistling to himself and pretending to look out over the park below us, but really he is there to monitor us (or marshal us, hence his name) . . . perhaps he is former KGB? We were able to snap a couple of pictures of him on the last sighting of him so I will attach one, it’s not very clear because of the grime on our windows, but you will get the idea.
Now that I am on the topic of animals, it might interest some people to know: that aside from the occasional smaller bird, pigeons have been the only “wildlife” we have seen in St. Petersburg. I guess maybe because they are hearty scavengers who can survive the winter here, and probably since any other birds that might ordinarily live here are all south for the winter in Sochi or some other such paradise on the Black Sea. At any rate, just a little observation. We have however seen many, many dogs! For some reason, everyone here has one, and one of our professors explains that it is because a) no one had enough money or food to be able to have dogs before, so they are kind of a status symbol in a way b)they wanted them originally for security c) and because people no longer have to live in communal apartments they actually have some space for pets. Another observation here, despite everyone living in apartments (no one has a detached house here like people have in North America, most people live in tall apartment buildings), is that there are dogs of all sizes. We have seen poodles in carrying bags, Dachshunds wading around in the snow, Dobermans, and even a brindled Great Dane (my favorite!) the other day while walking through the park on the way home. (Elisa we have even seen quite a few of Foxy’s cousins, it appears as though the Finish Spitz is a popular breed here) Most of the pets we have seen look as though they are well taken care of too, some wearing coats others fitted with boots, but occasionally we see rather sad looking ones which I try to forget about.
Haha marshall capture him and bring him to canada I wish to befriend him and tunr him into a double agent!
ReplyDeleteHee, hee I love this blog. Say hello to Marshall for me. There is just something endearing about pigeons (the ugly sister of the dove). They are so much nicer than seagulls. Although I saw a seagull today sitting on the roof and it would have been a good picture because of all the snow around him. Yesterday there was a snow storm. I was so excited. I haven't seen such beautiful snow flakes since I was in Russia. People here were complaining but I was in my glory. In the end, even though I love the warm weather, I still miss the beauty of snow. Anyway, I'm very excited to hear that Foxy has cousins in Russia. It seems so appropriate that she has a connection to Russia. If you get a chance I would love it if you took some photos of the Finish Spitz' in St. Petersburg. That would be a fantastic picture to have up in our house :) And I am sure Foxy would love to see pics of her cousins!
ReplyDelete