Our Roses

31-May-2003: This mourning dove decided the hanging plant that Jenny and Pokey put up would make a great home! Watering it has now become tricky - we spritz it with the hose so as not to flood the nest on the top. When we approached the nest, we didn't know the dove was in it, and she flew away to the neighbors and patiently waited for us to go inside, then returned to the nest.

23-June-2003: They hatched while we were gone in NYC!

17-July-2003: The dove is now working on her second clutch of eggs. Below, we see a rare appearance of her mate guarding the eggs while she goes off to do her business. We know it is the male because the hen has lost a few feathers on her dear head. We have also spotted this male watching us from atop the roof of our neighbors.

22-July-2003: More shots of the fledgeling birds, including one of some feeding. It's hard to catch them feeding for long as they tend to stop when they see me.

25-July-2003: Here we have a good shot of a parent and the 2 chicks. At this point, I can't tell whether this is the male or female since I've since learned that the male and female do almost equal nesting duty. So it may be Mrs. or Mr. bird who has the mohawk

1-Aug-2003: Unbelievably, just a few days after the 2nd batch of chicks departed, we now have the 3rd wave starting. I quickly took this picture (and had to take the planter down to do it!) while the parents were off.

16-Aug-2003: Jenn this morning noticed one of the parents with a piece of egg in her mouth. Before I could get the picture, said parent flew away. But I climbed up on the step ladder, and behold! captured these photos of one bird crawling out of the shell, and the other barely peeking through! You can see the chick's emergence as from left to right.

Last Update: These are the last shots we have of our Mourning Dove family. It seemed this time that the chicks got quite large before leaving the nest. Since then, we have an empty nest, and we miss seeing them very much. But, Mourning Doves have a maximum of 3 clutches per year, so we consider ourselves lucky to have been a part of it. Maybe they'll be back next year. Only question is, should I throw out the dead plant...

for another amazing, but tragic and much more detailed story of mourning doves, see http://www.matthewjcook.com/personal/dove.shtml

-- MattWalsh - 17 Apr 2003