Another kind of 'Bird' Story

On Labor Day, most of the family (our kids and grand children) came over for some burgers and hot dogs cooked on the grill, along with Bonnie's delicious potato salad and baked beans.

On the Saturday before the holiday, I was cleaning off the patio and table and chairs a little bit when I noticed that the orange tree looked a little dusty so I proceeded to hose it off just to make it look better. I noticed something moving near the tree but didn't pay much attention to it until a few minutes later when I was closer to the tree and I saw two baby Mourning Doves huddled on the top of the block wall fence that surrounds the yard. They must have been in a nest in the orange tree and my squirting the tree chased them out of the nest!

As the hours and the day went on, the baby Doves seemed perfectly content to sit on the top of the block wall. Mom returned to feed them and didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that they were away from the nest. Throughout the day I noticed that the baby Doves would move along the top of the wall so they could bask in the warm sunshine as the sun moved through the sky.

That evening we were sitting in the living room watching TV with the French doors open to let the cool air into the house when all of a sudden we heard a fluttering noise come into the house. I was half asleep, but Bonnie said that something had come into the house, and Allie, our dog had jumped up and gone to see what it was. About that time something fluttered over our heads and landed on the floor across the room from us...it was one of the baby Doves trying out it's wings! Allie proceeded to chase it and I was trying to call her off and catch the baby Dove before it flew into the wall and hurt itself. After several attempts I was able to catch it and took it outside and set it back up on the top of the wall. I checked on it a few times throughout the evening and it was still there, although the second baby Dove was nowhere in sight.

The next morning I checked on the baby Dove and there they were, both babies sitting next to each other on the fence and I could hear the mother Dove cooing softly away nearby.

They stayed around for about a week and didn't seem to mind when I was working around them in the yard. The mother also didn't mind my presence and she continued to tend to them while I worked in the area. During the night they must have hopped up into the branches of the orange tree as when I would look for them, they were never sitting on the top of the wall after it got dark.

All who came on Labor Day got to see the babies sitting on the wall, and even when Mom came to feed them, a few who were paying attention to them got to see how she would regurgitate the food into their waiting mouths!

It was good to see that our backyard is still a haven for other birds besides the ever present Hummers that are constantly at the feeders hanging out there!

Have a good day, and thanks for reading my posts!

Ron, the Plant Man