Thursday, April 07, 2005

Hard-Luck Dove Nest

The doves abandoned the nest in the back bedroom window today. This morning they were working feverishly to add to the nest and save the eggs, bringing grass and twigs, but their efforts were feeble compared to the increasing slump of the nest. I was sad to see them go—they've been sitting on those eggs for weeks already.

Additionally sadly (forgive the double adverbs), the object at the bottom of the picture is a baby bird from last year that got tangled in the grapevines and was unable to free itself and died there—this after I had watched them being fed and cared for. I was away when the sad event happened.

Once, there were two nests in the two back bedroom windows, the north one being a robins’ nest and the south one belonging to a pair of cardinals. Both were used for years until the doves took them over. The heavy ex-robins’ nest with its baby doves was the first to go down, blown out of the protecting vines in a windstorm. Now the other is going, and it is two late for the eggs, some of which have already tumbled to the ground. Two remain but must be chilled by now.

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