Doves living on my deck…and I don’t mean Unilever employees! June 17, 2008
Posted by Mrs Flipphead in Dove, Home, animals.trackback
But maybe they are spies…Hmmmm….. For some odd reason, two fledgling doves and their mommy have taken up residence on my deck. The babies sit all day waiting for mommy to bring them dinner. THAT’s an interesting sight. I have never had the pleasure of witnessing a mother bird regurgitating dinner for her babies before, now I have seen it more times than I care to count. Actually, it really is very interesting and sweet. They huddle together, basking in the sun on the top of the deck rail. Occasionally, they fly down to the deck to peck around.
I was worried that they couldn’t fly yet, but last night one of them was up in the tree with it’s mama. I couldn’t figure out where the other one was and was worried that a cat or possum got him. But they were both back this morning. We don’t have a bird feeder that has anything doves would be interested in, so I’m not sure why they have set up shop on our deck.
The boys are loving it though. I have thought about putting out something in the yard so the mama won’t have to fly so far from her babies to find enough food for both of them. She has to be exhausted. She is gone all day, comes back and feeds them both, then flies off again for hours (I assume, in search of food). I don’t really know enough about birds to know if this is a bad idea or not. I mean, I guess we feed the finches and the humming birds and occasionally put out corn for the squirrels, but I’m not sure what doves eat anyway.
I have wondered where the papa is, because I have heard that mourning doves mate for life. So far, I haven’t seen him though. Maybe he is back at the nest with the new eggs. I know from the aviary we had, at the nursing home that I worked at for a time, that the doves bred like rabbits. Unfortunately, in that scenario, the male doves would kick the babies out of the nest just before the female laid new eggs. Then they would peck the babies to death by plucking all the feathers out and letting the babies starve. It was really brutal. I finally had to ask the company to take the doves and the canaries out of the aviary and just leave the finches, because it was so upsetting to the residents. I suppose, in the wild, they spend so much time searching for food to feed themselves and the babies that they already have that they don’t have time to mate and make more babies.
Anybody know enough about doves to explain why they aren’t in a nest somewhere? Too big for the both of them? I can’t remember how many eggs the ones in the aviary laid at one time, but maybe they don’t usually have twins so there is no room at the inn, so to speak?
The momma is probably trying to teach them to fly…once they leave they are kinda stuck until they figure out how to get back up. We had some starlings on my patio a few weeks ago…they were juvenile and had just gotten their feathers, but couldn’t quite fly. It was quite sad actually since they kept calling out for momma bird, momma bird was around but she can’t fly them back up, they had to figure it out on their own.
After a while I called my SIL and asked her what to do, she used to volunteer at the local wild animal rescue, and she told us what I just told you…that momma was trying to make them fly, and they just couldn’t yet…so she took them to the rescue to be cared for until they got their tails feathers all the way in since I was scared a cat or something would come by and eat them.
Sandy-Well, they seem to be gone now. No sign of them this morning, so I guess you were right, they just needed to figure out how to get back up to the nest!