Pigeon physical modeler Graphical User Interface scratch space.

Pigeon Synth

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Crackhead head rush Web Audio API web app.

Headrush V7

FIXED GRANULARITY + FLANGER

STATUS: READY

TEXTURE & GRIT

Wah Speed 4.5Hz

Granularity Medium

Moves from smooth -> buzzing -> fractured

FLANGER (METALLIC SWOOSH)

Rate 0.5Hz

Depth High

HEAD RUSH

Gravity Toss 2.0Hz

Audio sweep web app

Cycle Sweep

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Granular audio web app playground.

DINO-TRACKER 9000

SYSTEM STANDBY

DRAG GREEN BOX TO LOOP

CRUSH16

SPEED1.0

ECHO / DELAY PAD

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #11: Broadway at 7th St. (sub-) flock.

 

This flock has been establishing itself as a more prominent feature of 7th St., off of Broadway, since the city put in bike lanes and pedestrian islands. Prior to that, for at least several months, the intersection had been fenced off completely, at times, due to the construction, job site that was situated in this part of town. 

The flock is most likely a sub-feature of the more well-trafficked Broadway flock, at 5th, between 5th and 6th. There, the owner of a shop hands out a 5 pound bag of bird seeds every day, going on many years, now - which is sufficient to feed the dozens and dozens of birds there, and their friends, sometimes (the Broadway flock flies over to Pershing Square, and back and forth, at least a few times per day). A lot of the birds situate themselves at Pershing Square for much of the day, since that’s one of my daily pigeon-feeding flocks that I visit daily, and I also have food for them. 

This flock is moderately sized, with perhaps 2 dozen or so pigeons. Here, there is a newspaper and noticias vendor that tends to them. The flock is a nice feature of the corner, and the birds liven up the heavily foot-trafficked pedestrian intersection of Broadway at 7th, in Downtown LA.

The vendor’s station, at Broadway at 7th.

Pigeons Amongst the Almond Blossoms (painted picture).

 I’d mentioned before that I had become fond of Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms painting, which I became aware of from encountering the likeness of the image on a nightlight, which I got off of Amazon Vine. Here, at the nursing facility where I now stay, there’s an activity room, for doing crafts and for getting on the internet, or just a computer, for residents that don’t have access, otherwise. One of the managers here encouraged me to do some paintings, since they have canvasses and watercolors, here. This is my third painting that I’ve done here, and it’s the first painting that I really sort of took seriously, in doing my best to fill in all of the white of the canvas, like a standard painting would have. I think that it came out well; I’d previously done an impressionist art adaptation of Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night in polymer clay, which I textured with a pin, to imitate the impasto technique that Van Gogh is famous for. Here’s the image:

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #10: Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock

This flock is a delight to visit (for me, at least, because I'm training them). They are currently (October 2024) becoming trained on the clicker, for "come." One of the birds swooped down in front of me, just earlier, today, as I arrived. I was positioned in an unfamiliar place, for feeding's sake, so it was especially flattering that the bird recognized me by the clicker. 

Some of the pigeon flock at Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass. 

This flock is particularly charming for its resilience in the face of challenges. Several of the birds (much more than by averages of other flocks) have visible battle scars, in the form of deformed and swollen feet, from having string tied around their feet, by former trappers that frequented the area, although they're here no longer, I seem to notice. I'm not well-versed in trapping the pigeons, to save them from their plight, at this time. I just show up and feed them. You can check out some of their quaint and isolated behaviors (although fairly common fare, for pigeons; I just felt that they could be a control flock, eventually, in psychological terms, with their progress and development in mind, on account of their isolation) in some video footage I captured while socializing my deceased pigeon friend that I brought along, and wrote an article on, a couple of weeks ago, below. 

Here, you can see my pigeon friend is being investigated by one of the males in the Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock's regular members.

Regardless of being new to the place, my pigeon friend felt right at home with the new birds, and he took to some sharing of the same meal as the other birds, while we visited. 

This bird, (unnamed, so far) is one of the more charming of the flock. He had a broken leg happen to him, several months ago, and it hasn't quite healed properly, but he could potentially heal up and be just fine, some day. 

The location is fairly quiet, lately, and, as I noted, isolated, but it's ideal if you happen to show up with food for the birds, and you can spot them roosting on the light poles. They'll swoop down and accept food, if they spot you tossing some out, in many cases. If you have a clicker, that's even better, because they're becoming trained on clicker noises. 

Autumn 2025 updates:

I’d been coming here regularly, now, for perhaps 2 years. The flock has stayed a fairly steady 12 core resident birds, here (the birds here are partially learned helplessness subjects, but, for example, as I arrived, today, the birds were out for a flight, so I suppose that they have somewhere to go, when they want to, or, perhaps, when they need to, which they don’t, really, since the flock here is relatively isolated from other flocks nearby that I know about. Regardless, in the summertime, I observed that, on one day, there were about 20 birds present, so that could have been their young, that had moved out, to live somewhere else, and they returned home to the cool enclave where they roost - a shady spot that’s practically impervious to heat waves. 

Some of the flock had returned, since I started writing this update:

I like this flock, in particular, because of its isolation - there’s rarely any humans that visit or frequent the location, and it’s kind of a cozy connection to have, knowing that they (probably) largely depend on me showing up, for their meal times. There used to be a homeless encampment here, and some of the birds here show signs of having been trapped, previously. Fortunately, none of them are too badly maimed, just some lost toes, here and there, and one crooked-legged pigeon. I also like this flock because sometimes they’ll spot me walking up, from a distance, and they’ll fly out to greet me, knowing that I’ll feed them.