Ooh baby dove, my baby dove...

 The story about the mourning dove couple that began nest building directly outside of Lucy's and my bedroom windows begins with this post (scroll down) and continues here and here with Baby Dove appearing in that last linked post. I decided to name the little squab dove, Baby Dove because I got an earworm tracing back to Baby Love by The Supremes, 1964. While I can hear that entire song in my head musically the only lyrics that came to mind were, "Ooh baby love, my baby love I need you, oh how I need you." In reading the lyrics it turns out that baby love was pretty much a jerk. I will take note that the song was actually written by three dudes. But I digress...

Baby Dove began to fledge on April 26th. Around 7:00 AM I saw a quick flutter out of the nest, maybe 2-3' outside of it and in the same moment it fluttered back. As we got close to this event I've also been seeing mom and dad together again, which is nice. Twigs, the dad, had been on the day shift for egg sitting duty and mom Sally was taking on that role in the evening. Because of this I was rarely seeing Twigs outside the nest and it's really difficult to see up into that spot without some alarm over disturbing the birds. So I didn't. 

Here are some pictures of Sally and Twigs taken since the hatching of Baby Dove.

Sally. From her left side one way to distinguish Sally from Twigs is that small light gray spot toward the back of her head. However, it's not always visible. Feathers move around a lot.
Sally from April 27th.

Another way to differentiate Sally from Twigs is by the larger, tanner feathers on her right wing. Notice too the iridescent feathers on Twigs neck. They both will show iridescent feathers but it's more pronounced on Twigs.
Twigs left, Sally right, from April 28th.

The black spots, as this photo perhaps suggests, tend to move around some but for the most part I can tell the difference between the two from those too. There is some occasional confusion on my part in looking at the birds head on.

Twigs left, Sally right, from April 28th

Twigs, April 26th

Onto Baby Dove.
April 28th.

Same shot but cropped in for a closer look.

Twigs and Baby Dove.

Baby Dove.

At one point Twigs and Sally exchanged places.

There was a noise up on the rock roof and since I knew the location of all three birds and because Vit the cat has sometimes been known to frequent the roof I decided going out to the front walkway would be a good idea so I could peer up at the roof. I bought my camera along to get a couple of pictures of Baby Dove not through a dirty window.

April 29th.

Things got a little weird for me but I didn't find out until about 6:00 in the evening when I took a more studied look at these photos on my computer.

First, outside the bedroom windows, both Sally and Twigs were enjoying the area down below the nest in their courtyard garden. This area is only 120 square feet and houses a gardenia bush (shown in the foreground of the last image, for example) which was planted by my dad most likely before I was born. Gardenias were my mother's favorite flower, she wore them in her hair and carried them in a bouquet on her wedding day.

Sally, very close to the windows, me too, I'm very close on my side. They are aware of my movements but don't seem particularly bothered by me when I'm inside. They both froze for a moment when Lucy went to her water dish just 30 inches (76cm) from the windows then they went right back to pecking for seeds. This area is typically relatively clear of weeds but I haven't been in there with a line trimmer for obvious reasons.

 Now the weirdness, I have not figured this out...

 I took that picture from the master bedroom windows at 3:08 PM. Through the viewfinder I thought it was a parent bird and Baby Dove. A few hours later there was this... I couldn't imagine Baby Dove had grown that much in a day.

I started to question both of the squabs sitting in the weeds. Maybe they were of other parents? I began backtracking on everything. In the second post on Sally and Twigs I explained how (still not sure why) Sally and Twigs got spooked in the early evening March 31st and took off for parts unknown. In the first post I indicated that it was shortly after 7:12 PM and showed two pictures from where they took off from. That wasn't the right time and those weren't the correct images. Right location, wrong images. The story is otherwise correct, I simply don't know what happened to the pictures. The accurate time of their untimely departure was sometime in the 4 PM hour. I took my phone to the nest at 5:42 PM to see if there was indeed an egg but the shot is up high with virtually no headroom clearance for taking a picture. I also tried a few seconds of video. I reviewed the video a couple of days later, frame by frame and was able to make out the egg. So this was already over an hour of the nest being vacant. It was 65º to 63ºF during those hours. I also checked the nest until it was too dark to see. Sunset was at 7:15. That egg needs to stay at 98.6º. That egg was no longer viable.

Nevertheless, both Sally and Twigs are treating both squabs as their own. I have seen other parent doves, there is a pair that semi hung out on the other side of the house and I saw they also had a squab. And while mourning doves can be rather communal they aren't when it comes to breeding. They may adopt a dove if an egg is laid in their nest by an outsider dove but this is rare. They don't adopt outside of the nest and it's quite uncommon for them to lay more than two eggs in a single brood. Besides, this first squab simply did not show up in the nest. I have spent a rather extraordinary amount of time watching these birds. And besides that, I suspect the bigger baby is more than a few days older than Baby Dove. So, excuse me but WTF?!

April 30th.

Early morning I followed Twigs and Sally from windows at one end of the house to the other. When I saw the two squabs, once again hanging close to each other and Sally "billing" with both of them, I realized for sure that they were all family. The older larger squab is now officially named, "Mystery." 

Baby Dove just after Sally was "billing" with both squabs. This was taken from the master bedroom windows, shooting below the emu bush. They were too close to the window for me to get focus on the billing activity. Billing is part of mourning doves mating ritual, is used for regurgitated feeding of young and is also a sign of affection between birds including offspring.

Twigs seemed to be on guard duty a short distance in front on the driveway. Sally and the squabs are about 10 feet away.

About 50 minutes later the entire family was back either on the wall or inside their courtyard.

Sally was looking up at me, I'm less than six feet away here. Again, I'm shooting through dirty windows.

 

 Five minutes later Twigs and Sally were up on the wall together. When together, Twigs was usually on my left. Note again the small light gray spot on Sally's head.

Baby Dove.

Baby Dove with Mystery on the right. 

A content Twigs.

May 1st.

With the babies growing up... and fast. It looks like Sally and Twigs have more time for one another. 

Close to the lower bedroom windows again and this time their little feet are only about 36" from my big feet.

Mystery and Baby Dove are on their way to doing their own thing.

 Here's Twigs checking in. I will also note that Baby Dove is especially responsive to the presence of dad.

May 2nd.

Baby Dove left. Mystery on the right.

This post has been one of the most time consuming posts to date. 30 folders with about 75 additional subfolders, 2,000+ images taken and a couple of 100 edited images throughout this little adventure. I'm gonna continue to scratch my head over the appearance of Mystery. The first egg was abandoned and I checked the nest for hours. Baby Dove's hatching was right on schedule. I've learned more about mourning doves than probably any other bird species. Anyway, unless there's something spectacularly new and special to report I probably won't revisit the story of Sally and Twigs here but I will rather end with these images of Twigs from today, May 3rd, to indicate, the saga continues... 

[Just Like] Starting Over

Baby Zenaida

 Part three in the story of the lovely couple of mourning doves, Sally and Twigs Zenaida, who chose to make a nest just outside and above my bedroom windows. It's Lucy's bedroom too but, of late, the house is warming up and Lucy is choosing to retire to her chair and bed in the living room. She's probably relieved to get away from dad's snoring. 

For the most part I have tried to leave the doves alone and have only glanced at the nest on a few occasions to make sure one of the birds was on duty. There was quite a bit of concern over there being a viable egg after the two events described in this post from April 12th. Yesterday, April 24th, I got real curious about Sally's and Twigs' behavior. Both birds were nearby but away from the nest. Ultimately neither bird was directly attending to the nest for well over an hour. Somewhere in between I went out and attempted a few photos while standing on the front walkway outside of the wall with my arms and camera hanging inside the dove's area. It's dark and very difficult to see up to the nest for most of the day. I did go inside on April 19th to grab a hummingbird feeder, fill it and then return it. I didn't even look up at the nest as to reduce any avian anxiety over my presence. The feeder had been empty for about a week. There are at least three hummingbirds that I've known for quite some time. I was feeling guilty about ignoring their feeder. It went perfectly well. 

Back to yesterday's photo attempt. Mourning dove squabs (baby mourning doves) make soft, high-pitched sounds that are often described as "peeping" or "wheezing." I have heard none of that. Yet, we have a squab. This bird hatched on April 14th or 15th. So it's 9-10 days old in this image. I haven't come up with a name yet, It would be nice to know the gender first. Mourning dove squabs, typically fledge (leave the nest) around 12 to 15 days after hatching. They are able to survive on their own within 5 to 9 days post departure. After fledging, they may remain near the nest for a few more days, often returning to roost at night, before eventually leaving the area completely. 

Here's mom Sally about 45 minutes earlier, when I was trying to figure out the back and forth between her and daddy Twigs. I thought I may have gotten pictures of both of them but nope. Again, pictures of birds on the wall are taken though a dirty window from inside the bedroom.

They take away and they give their life as they live
The living's right to live, it's all that we need to give
The living's right to know...

 PS,

Sally and Twigs Zenaida, Part 2

 Sally and Twigs Zenaida are a pair of mourning doves that decided to rear their young just outside of and above my cat Lucy's and my bedroom. This was first mentioned in this post. If everything were to go as nature has planned they would be expecting the first of two eggs to hatch within the next couple of days. However life has a way of throwing a wrench in the works with unexpected events or situations that disrupt plans or expectations. So far, I have witnessed two such events for Sally and Twigs. Right now I'm hoping things worked out in such a way for the second event so that their second egg remains viable. I'll provide a brief explanation. 

The first egg was probably laid early morning on March 31st. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs for about 14 days. The male usually incubates during the day, and the female at night. So far this has been my experience. However, as the sun moved toward the horizon on March 31, I believe I may have inadvertently disturbed Twig's shift on the nest by bringing a low profile ceramic bowl of water out nearby the nest. He joined Sally on the other side of their walled enclosure and under bushes in front of the house less than five yards away. They had seen me inside their area before and, in fact, they probably observed my behavior around the house for at least a couple of days before I realized what they were up to. They were both under a large, weeping Eremophila bignoniiflora bush that's just behind the driveway. I had even pulled my car out of the garage with them there on at least one previous occasion. Be that as it may, I went around the house from the other side after what I already thought was too long to be off nest and observed them from the other end of my driveway, just inside the pedestrian sidewalk and close to the street. I was approximately 47 feet away from them and they took off. They flew so far east of me I basically watched them disappear. That was my first heartbreak. At the time I had no idea if a first egg had been laid. I discovered there was indeed an egg when I carefully reviewed some sloppy video recorded on my phone, frame by frame, a couple of days later. They were back early the following morning but of course that egg was no longer viable.

Fast forward to two nights ago, around 3:30 AM, Friday, April 11th. There was a commotion up on the nest that was so loud it woke me up. I'd describe it as mostly wing fluttering from the nest and ultimately I heard the sound doves make when they take flight which is called a wing whistle. I panicked in my stupor, ultimately grabbing a flashlight and going out the front door to the front walkway. My first thought was Sally had been accosted by a rat. The nest was empty but it also looked undisturbed. I have a camera that covers this area out to the street. I didn't see any events recorded. It's not unusual though for stuff to record to the camera and not always get picked up on the software. Yes, it's a cheap camera, I'd like to replace it. Well, I checked the camera again last night before bed and lo and behold there were recordings of me going out twice with my flashlight (I actually went out three times, one incident didn't record) and there was also a recording of a raccoon coming down from the roof. I don't believe it's at all possible for a raccoon to reach the nest but it obviously got close enough to disturb Sally. My hope is that Sally came back in time to maintain viability of the second egg. 

Time stamps are in the upper left corners but are probably hard to read. Me with the flashlight is 03:35:03, this was the first time I checked, there were additional noises that had me go out again. The raccoon was obviously still mulling around, I believe on the adjacent roof of the garage. His timestamp here is 03:08:05. Behind me and the jerk raccoon is the Eremophila bignoniiflora bush which has just begun flowering. As always, click the image for a better view.

Here are some more pleasant moments with the doves. I will state again, all photos taken of the birds on the wall were taken from inside the bedroom through a dirty window. I will also mention again that mourning doves are prolific breeders, capable of raising up to six broods per year. 

March 31st. Twigs, day one on the nest.

April 1st

 

Twigs. They do come down off the nest for a few minutes from time to time.

 

Sally.

 

 
Sally. This is the approximate location the first time they got spooked and both flew off. So, again, days before and at times like these they were perfectly fine with me nearby. I was over 45 feet away for these photos. Do you sense I don't want to take complete responsibility for them taking off and leaving an egg overnight?

 

 April 2nd

 

Twigs. The dish had Dimorphotheca sinuata seed in it. I looked it up and it was fine for the doves but I don't think either one touched any. By late evening I had a huge bag of wild bird food delivered.

 

This is Sally, taken close to 7 PM. They seemed to transition on nest sitting duty a little past sunset right around the last hints of daylight. There are some markings that defiantly indicate to me which bird is which. They're not always obvious.
 

April 3rd. Twigs. I had to go in and collect the water dish which went out front with the bird seed dish. He was fine with me here.

 

April 4th

Sally, this was taken from my side yard. I was taking out some trash and she was up on the pinnacle of the roof over the center of the kitchen. She hung out in this spot for over 20 minutes. 

Twigs.

 

 April 7th. These are all Sally, shortly after 7 PM. Notice the inbound sparrow in the second shot.

April 8th. Twigs having some of the bird seed I put out on the wall. I stopped putting it there since there were so many other birds coming in. There's plenty of seed out in the dish and surrounding area under the Eremophila.

 

 That's it for now. The gaps in photo taking were up to them. It was been significantly warmer for a couple of days and perhaps they had a preference to be down below and in the shade rather than up on the wall. I just took a break to check my mail and upon opening the front door I saw one of them at the edge of the driveway just under the Eremophila. I stopped, didn't check the mail and closed the door. I didn't get a good look but considering it was only 4:15 I'll assume it was Sally.

 

If you read all of this do me a favor now. Think good thoughts for the one egg still being viable. Ya know, they say... Having doves nest at your home is often seen as a positive omen, symbolizing peace, love, tranquility and new beginnings, with some cultures associating them with good luck or a sense of calm and harmony to a household and the remembrance of loved ones.
 

Ultimately, the "something special" the doves are offering me (and Lucy) might be less about grand symbolic meaning and more about the subtle, everyday benefits of having nature close by. I would like to think there is something to them choosing a spot right outside the bedroom even without subscribing to traditional symbolic interpretations. In our often busy, human-centric lives, having wildlife so close can be a gentle reminder of the natural world that exists alongside us. It's a chance to observe the rhythms of nature--right outside my windows. This connection is grounding and provides a sense of perspective. The soft cooing sounds and the gentle movements of the doves create a subtle, calming atmosphere, contributing to a feeling of peacefulness in my environment, even if I don't consciously attribute it to "peace." This is a connection I need right now, it brings me sanity when I don't see a lot of that happening in the world.

 

I am the ocean, lit by the flame
I am the mountain, Peace is my name
I am the river touched by the wind
I am the story, I never end