Weekend walk report: Introducing Sally and Twigs Zenaida

 My walks for Saturday, March 29th and today, Sunday, March 30th. Both walks were moderately truncated for various reasons already lost in the passage of time. One thing for today, rain showed up around 5:20 AM and while there wasn't much measurable activity more was being forecast and I wasn't especially inclined to walk around with my camera in case it decided to dump. The lovely Docken joined me on both walks and her company was appreciated. She walked in her hood and to her local garden on Saturday, both of us taking pictures along the way. 

Neither day was too exciting on the photo front for me.

Saturday, March 29th (2.5 miles)

This monarch butterfly was acting as my guide as I entered the arboretum at a nearby college campus. He flew circles around me close enough to reach out and touch and stayed along side me for a little over 100 yards. This is where he stopped to give me a photo op.

  There are now several Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) trees in bloom.

 It was a short trip through the arboretum and on to the botanical garden. This Coleonema pulchellum shrub is as flowery as I've ever seen it. It is commonly known as confetti bush.

 I saw a lot of hummingbirds but they we mostly up high and often chasing each other away. This is the same male Allen's hummingbird that has been featured in the past several walk reports. Like many Selasphorus sasin hummingbirds I've experienced he's fiercely territorial. 

There's always a mockingbird.

 This house finch had me fooled from a distance. It seemed much redder and larger than usual. The shrub is Westringia fruticosa.

 From then on it was camera down and chat time with Doc as I decided how much more I felt like walking.

 Sunday, March 30th (1.5 miles)

It was pretty gray and dismal out and besides the ominous feeling of impending rain, I had left home bent over with back pain so I was more inclined to "walk the kinks out" than to take pictures. The walk did my back good within about 1/2 mile.

I should have tried taking a wider shot of this. These are wild rose plants that are seriously taking over an area that was dominated by red mountain sage (Salvia darcyi) and bog sage (Salvia uliginosa). I have in the past been able to carefully walk amongst those plants; not anymore. 

A long shot of the aforementioned male Allen's hummingbird.

This panorama was actually taken yesterday to show Docken this little "island" that lost five rather large trees within the past couple of weeks. For the life of me I can't recall the name of the trees.

Google thinks the replacement trees are in the genus Hakea. It make sense since this is within the Australian natives portion of the garden. If you look closely slightly above the fresh, blonde mulch and a little left of the base of the new tree, you'll notice one of the stumps from the trees that were removed.

 That's it for the weekend walk portion. The big story of the week though is a pair of mourning doves that began nest building right outside of Lucy's and my bedroom windows. I've named them Sally and Twigs Zenaida. Zenaida being the genus name for the species Zenaida macroura.

 Sally and Twigs Zenaida

I first noticed this pair of mourning doves on Thursday, March 27th. It wasn't until Friday that I realized they were building a nest above the wall outside of my utility room above hot water pipes that run out from where the water heater is located in the garage. It's not the most attractive spot outside of the house. The utility room was added around 1970-1971 and it wasn't designed well to begin with. One issue in April of 2022 was my patching up where water pipes entered the main house due to a problem with a rat getting into the "attic" space above the utility room. This was done with a considerable amount of haste. Midway through the project, sealing off access there was an "escape pod" provided for the rat. From that point moving forward I never heard from the rat again. I only saw the critter once.

Part of the reason it's so hodgepodge looking is because I had to go from rat-escape design to rat no-entry design rather quickly. Remember, rats are out doing their thing at night.

 

It was also awkward and nobody was ever supposed to see it.

Anyway, 18" in front of this, above the larger foam insulated hot water pipe is where Sally and Twigs decided would be a good place to build a nest.

First spotted was Twigs. The male gathers materials and the female constructs the nest. He was back and forth in as little as 30 seconds. From what I observed, during the more active periods of nest building I'd guess that Twigs was bringing Sally a new sprig of something about once a minute on average. There were several times he would go in with a twig of something only to come back out and wait on the wall outside another 15-20 seconds, presumably for Sally to give him the go ahead for the additional material. 

Everything shot from this angle was taken from my bed and we're looking through a dirty window.

 My first visit inside their area.

I believe this is Sally. Their coloring, like many bird feathers, is iridescent so at times I found distinguishing one from the other difficult.

 And the two of them. 

After this I left them alone for hours but later in the afternoon both Docken and I thought it would be a good idea to bring them some water and I thought it would be a good idea to pluck a bunch of chickweed away from the dish so the birds wouldn't feel like they were swimming in it.

 While I was quickly removing the chickweed, Sally flew over the wall and joined Twig. At the time I was thinking, my bad. Later I went around the side of the house to the driveway to check on them. In part I'm thinking, we're in this for a long haul and while making efforts not to infringe on their space, they also need to be used to my presence.  

At my closest point I was about 40 feet away when I took these pictures at 7:12 PM. Right after this they both took off over the house and I watched them until they disappeared heading east. I was heartbroken. Twigs is in front.

Over the phone Docken kept insisting they would come back but I kept thinking about how far away they flew. Later in the evening I read this basic information on a couple of websites... mourning doves will likely leave their nest at night if incubation hasn't started. Once an egg is laid, often in the early morning, both parents will start incubating frequently taking shifts between day and night.  

Incubation is usually around 14 days and then it's another 15 days before the fledgling doves leave the nest. Typically there are two eggs laid and that can be separated by as much as a couple of days. I also read they will reuse their nest and that in Southern California, mourning doves typically raise 2 to 6 broods per year. So, seriously we need to get used to each other.

Day two, they were back as early as 6:25. That's when I first heard some cooing. The first pictures were taken around 7:07. If it's holding a twig you definitely know it's Twigs.

 Day three, today. This was a little after 8:00 AM. I saw Sally on the wall first but by the time I got my camera she was up tending to the nest. Again, they had left late yesterday afternoon and they did that again today. From what I'm reading the first egg should be coming soon. Notice some streaks coming down in a couple of images, that was some of the rain this morning.

 That's it for now. I hope this is an evolving story. I plan on getting a sack of bird food and putting it out and moving the water under the Eremophila bignoniiflora tree in front of the house (see images 19 &20 for the general location).

Soft as a dove