The pigeons are not happy with me. Well, I wasn’t happy when a second pigeon couple (or threeway or whatever it is they’re doing with all that cooing and cuddlng…) amassed twigs and leaves in the corner of the balcony. That is what passes for a pigeon nest, followed soon by eggs, followed by incredibly messy and increasingly numerous young. So I removed the twigs and leaves. The birds retaliated by laying an egg in the planter right outside my balcony window – all of four feet from my computer. Five days later – two eggs. So today I snatched the eggs at an untended moment, and hard-boiled them.  When I went to put the eggs back, the mom pigeon was back in position and all bunched up with tense suspicion that Something Was Wrong. I put the eggs back in the planter and used a (clean) paint-stirring stick to tuck the eggs back up under her. Seriously ruffled feathers ensued. But she’s still there with her feathers slicked back down. I’m pretty sure pigeons don’t really know the difference between a dud and a live egg. (But *I* know the difference between a garden balcony and a rookery and I prefer the former!)