This past summer, Berlin, Germany, resident Marlene Blanke went out of town for three weeks. When she went to take a shower the day she returned, she noticed something about the bathroom had changed while she was gone.
On the nook next to her shower where she and her roommate store their soap and shampoo, there was a pigeon nest with two parents and two chicks inside. Blanke quickly pieced together that the pigeons had gotten in through the small window in the bathroom.
At first, Blanke was baffled, but she quickly turned her attention to making sure the pigeon family was OK. She contacted a local wildlife rescue to come take them away, but they informed her that because pigeons are protected in Germany, it’s illegal to move their nests.
Luckily for the pigeon family, Blanke happens to be a wild-animal lover. Her ornithologist grandfather passed his deep respect for birds onto her. So even though city-dwelling pigeons are often unfairly judged, Blanke welcomed them with open arms.
Blanke got to work getting the little family as comfortable as possible in their new home. She gave them a privacy curtain, set out food and water for them, and decided to shower at her boyfriend’s place for the time being.
“I cleaned their space, I got rid of any objects that were still left over, and then I did some research on what pigeons like to eat,” Blanke said on TikTok.
While Blanke did her best to give the pigeon family lots of space, she couldn’t help but get attached to them. She named the parents Pauline and Pierre and the two babies Trixie and Katya.
“Me and my roommate think that they love us back,” Blanke said on YouTube.
Blanke marveled at how quickly Trixie and Katya grew. Within five days, they were already unrecognizable.
After just a few weeks, it was finally time for the babies to leave the nest. The day they flew away, Blanke felt incredibly emotional. As excited as she was for Trixie and Katya to embark on their new journey, she knew she was going to miss them terribly.
“I feel like a proud mother,” Blanke said.
At that point, Blanke thought she’d never see Pierre and Pauline again. But just a few weeks later, to Blanke’s surprise, they returned — and built another nest. As shocked as Blanke was, once again she welcomed them with open arms.
“Perhaps my purpose in life is to be a godmother to generations upon generations of wood pigeons,” Blanke wrote on TikTok.
