We haven’t see the mom and dad doves since Saturday and were worried they abandoned their babies. After doing a little research, I found the following:
“The babies grow rapidly and leave the nest at 11 or 12 days old. No empty nest syndrome here; if the babies won’t leave by day 13, the parents will refuse to come to the nest to feed them. They wait patiently on a nearby branch until the kids get hungry enough to flutter down to the ground.”
This makes sense since there have been two doves hanging out on the wire in front of our house. We think it’s mom & dad dove.
This morning it looks like maybe there’s only one baby in the nest. I’ll get out there after my class this morning with my selfie stick & capture another photo to see what’s in there.
We hope a baby doesn’t land on the patio for Bear to find …
When Bruce was watering last week he noticed some vagabonds. We decided to welcome them as long as they’d like to stay. Today, selfie stick in hand, I was able to capture a family moment.
According to “Wild Bird Watching” website, mourning doves frequently nest in hanging plants, and have been known to use the same nest for 5 sets of eggs in a single season (April – July, but could go as late as October in some regions). The nests never go unwatched. The male takes the daytime shift, and the female takes the evening shift. Who knows what the male is up to all night …
I can’t tell from the photo if these are 2 adults, or whether there are eggs or babies. From the laundry room window sometimes we can see what looks like little fuzzy heads, but it’s hard to tell because we don’t want to get too close for fear we may scare them away.
I thought the grandkids, in particular, might like to see this photo of our new house guests.
I apologize for the Alo ABC YouTube video in my last post not being the correct video. Although it was really cute, I mis-named it (yes, it’s hard to believe, but I made an error). Here’s the real ABC video.