Looking west at Broken Top and The Three Sisters in the Oregon Cascades Feb. 2016


“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” -
John Ruskin


Monday, May 27, 2013

Baby Dove Update -

Saturday was the first day that we saw the mama dove acting differently.  She had babies tucked under her!  It was really difficult to ever see them but I did mange to get one quick look from a distance, while on a ladder.

 
Look very closely along the rim of the pot, down from the mama dove's face.  You can see the little baby dove peeking out from under her.  She had been feeding the baby.
 
Today we went to town to run a few errands.  When we returned I decided to drip a cup of coffee.  I was at the sink putting water in the kettle and when I looked up to check on the doves, I saw that the nest was empty.  No dove there at all and for the past two weeks we have never seen the nest empty.  I ran outside to get Tramp 1 and we went to check the nest.


 
We found this poor little fellow on the ground under the basket she was nesting in.  I don't know how she felt about it but I was devastated.
 

 
When we checked the nest, it was empty.  Then we discovered this little baby back behind a pot, also below the nest basket. 
 
We don't know what happened - whether she was attacked by some other bird or if the babies simply fell out of the nest.  It has been raining the better part of the day and she was sheltered under the eve of the house.  We were just talking this morning about what a good place she picked to nest.  Maybe she will be back to try again.   I miss her soft stare through the window...
 

 
Death in the high desert seems to be the theme this season.  We found these two dead little bunnies last month.  The third one was partially eaten.  We think a cat probably got them.  Life can be very harsh...

6 comments:

Linda said...

I'm very sad about both the doves and the bunnies. Sometimes nature is very cruel.

Teresa Kasner said...

Awww.. sorry the dove family make it.. makes you wonder if something happened to the mom and those two got too cold and hungry? We live on a farm and have had our share of losses. :-( T

Leslie said...

Oh, I'm sorry the dove babies didn't make it. Perhaps the parents were first-timers and didn't have it all together yet. The season is young -- hopefully, they'll give it another try.

Sue said...

Seemed like such a great spot!
Well, hopefully next time things will go better for her.

1st Man said...

Oh, I'm sorry that is sad. I had a dove come back two years in a row to nest in the same hanging basket. One year there were no babies (or none that I saw) and another year, she raised two. Hope she comes back next time. Nature is cruel sometimes huh?

Coastal BC Stories Books said...

It's hard to see critters thriving one day, and gone the next. One year our Barn Swallow chicks fell from the nest (all 5 of them). We aren't sure why, but the second brood of three grew up to fledge. - Margy