What a Difference a Day Makes

I know that the Eagle Cam is all the rage, but this is the Dove Update and will have to do.

As of this morning:

One facing me, one facing away

This morning when I looked into the courtyard from the front gate it was clear mom wasn't on the nest.  These chicks were aware enough to be less than pleased about my taking their picture from six feet away.

When my husband got home from work he brought in the  "Nesting doves -- please use side gate" sign and I thought "uh-oh."  Sure enough, he reported the chicks were gone.  We went out for a look around as they didn't look ready to fly away and found them on the ground about 15 feet away from the nest on the ground near the wall of the house and under the Tombstone rose.  Mourning doves incubate their eggs for 14 days and nest after hatching for 12-15 days, so these chicks were right on schedule.  Having watched a semi-fledged dove before, it takes only a couple of days before they start looking like a regular dove, and after a week or so it's impossible to distinguish them from the adults.

This is the first fledging of three nests we know of around the house.  The second nest is on the support beam under the back porch, and we just discovered a third on the spool (spa/pool) heater.  There was a Cooper's hawk trying to flush birds into my big window under the porch this afternoon and for some time the nest on the porch beam was without a parent -- we know the chicks have hatched as I saw one of the parents feeding them yesterday.  Tonight there is a dove on the nest with the chicks, so I'll sleep better.  It's a little too much dove drama, but that's spring in the Sonoran Desert.  The white winged doves are beginning to show up and I saw breeding behavior with some of them today, so we'll have a second dove breeding cycle here soon.

Early this evening:

It that a glare?

All in all, not bad for a mated pair's month's work, though most chicks will not survive their first year.  The grim reality, but there is no shortage of doves, and we're all, in the end, somebody else's lunch.

Youngsters

Momma dove, still sitting pretty in her "resort" nursery

We're not using the front door these days.  The front courtyard is mostly off limits due to the fearless dove that insisted on laying her eggs amongst the dove-deterrent chopsticks and balls of foil.  Any mother that determined deserves every chance to fledge her two chicks.  Here they are about six days after hatching.

There is still much that could go awry -- failure to thrive, a hungry snake or roadrunner -- but I'll keep you posted.