I thought I might have a welcome and entertaining avian distraction during the Covid-19 lockdown. Not gonna happen.
Two days ago I posted this photo of a female Eurasian Collared Dove on her nest just a few feet outside the window where I sit at my computer. She and her mate had spent much of that day building their nest and I had hopes of spending weeks watching them incubate eggs and raise their family as a welcome distraction from the extreme boredom of the Covid-19 lockdown.
On the evening of that same day (two days ago) I spotted her first egg while she was rearranging herself on the nest. I expected her second egg to be laid sometime yesterday. One of the first things I did yesterday morning when it began to get light was open my drapes to see if she’d laid her second egg.
But she wasn’t in the nest and neither were any eggs, including the one that had been laid the day before.
I found it smashed to smithereens directly below the nest and I haven’t seen either of the adult doves since. I don’t know if the egg was accidentally knocked out of the flimsy and crude nest or if some predator was responsible for its demise. Either way the deed is done and the doves have apparently abandoned the effort, at least for now.
I’m a little surprised by how disappointed I am. Eurasian Collared Doves are an introduced species and I’m not fond of their annoying call so as far as I’m concerned that’s two strikes against them. Even so I had hopes of spending weeks watching their nesting and family-raising behaviors while I’m mostly stuck at home during the lockdown.
But I’m slowly realizing there’s more to my disappointment than just that. I’ve had a soft spot for pigeons and doves since 6th grade when I first began to raise pigeons in southern Cal. I built my own pigeon coop and quickly became a serious student of their behaviors and nesting habits and that intense interest continued to the point of addiction through my junior high years in CA and my freshman year in high school in Montana.
Doves and pigeons are closely related and their behaviors are very similar. So I’m beginning to realize that part of the reason I was looking forward to watching the doves raise their family was because I was unconsciously hoping to recapture some of the joys I experienced with my pigeons as a pre-teen and young teenager.
Here my friend Dennis Ehlert and I are holding a pair of my fancy pigeons (young Helmets probably) on the patio of my home in Poway, CA when we were both in junior high (1960?). That’s me on the left. It was Dennis who introduced me to the joys of pigeon raising and I’ll be forever grateful. My mother felt the same way because she said my pigeons “kept me out of trouble.” She was mostly right but what she never knew won’t hurt her now…
Anyway, some of my readers asked me to keep them informed of the “progress” of the nesting doves so this is my attempt to do so.
I just wish the news was better.
Ron
Note: Has anyone else noticed how often bird and nature lovers refer to Covid-19 as Corvid-19? Sure, blame one more thing on the poor crows, ravens and magpies!
Nice to see the photo of you and your friend as young fellows with the pigeons. My mother had eyes in the back of her head, plus good hearing.
As for looking forward to watching the nest, I keep going back to the park to check on the mother squirrel. How did you know? It took me weeks to stop saying “Corvid-19”
I have a lot of mourning doves here in SW CT. They build the flimsiest nests! Over the years they have actually nested in the flower pots on my porch, where we walked by numerous times each day. Watching the eggs hatch, then the chicks fledge was so much fun! I hope your birds return to their spot outside your window!
Lynnette, Mourning doves tried to nest in this exact spot two years ago. Their nest failed too.
Do you think the doves will try again?
From what I’ve seen when mourning doves lose their eggs they abandon the nest. Seeing the remnants of smashed eggshell leaves you feeling a little empty.
Your previous post on the doves has the tag “corvid-19 lockdown”. Us bird lovers got a kick out of that pun.
Amy, yes I think they’re try again but almost certainly somewhere else.
Thanks for pointing out that tag. I’ll fix it.
Hey Ron, Thanks for posting the latest story about the Eurasian Collared Dove. Sorry to hear of the smashed egg. So sad. The predominant Doves in Arizona are ‘Mourning Doves.’ My experience with them is that they are lousy nest builders. Quickly assembled of loose sticks and twigs, coming apart in the slightest of winds. As you had noted, I too suspect the ‘Humpty Dumpty’ effect on the egg, just outside your window, was due to poor nest construction. I seen numerous broken eggs over the years. Still, there seems to be a lot of Morning Doves around. So maybe they are doing something right when it comes to raising their young.Thanks again for your wonderful blog. I always look forward to it. Take care.
Thank you, Fred. As far as I know all doves and pigeons are “lousy nest builders” but as you say, most of them are successful as a species so they must be doing something right.
Didn’t take much of a good eye. Those are really dusty knees😀
An obscure country song:
I messed around with pigeons,
and left with dusty knees,
There’s tumblers and there’s tipplers,
but was the rollers ruined my dungarees.
Ok, “My Pigeon House” it ain’t.
Lyle, my knees were perpetually dirty from 6th grade until the beginning of my freshman year in high school. Not kidding.
And I was always wearing my jeans out at the knees. That pair was actually in pretty good shape for me. Most of my jeans had been patched at the knees at least once with those iron-on patches we don’t see anymore.
Sorry to hear. So many birds have no defense, either from the ground or from the air. Seems an odd way to evolve.
On a lighter subject, gotta ask: what’s with the dirty knees?
Good eye, Lyle.
I had to build my pigeon coop from scrap lumber so for complicated reasons it had a tiny door at ground level so I had to get onto my hands and knees in the dirt to get in and out of it.
This post left me a little weepy — especially the shot of the smashed egg. 😢
Holding out a little hope that the parents might return and try again, or at least another pair may use the spot.
And as for the things our parents didn’t know…I could probably fill quite the tome that would have my folks’ ashes in a flutter (not sure how to translate “turning over in their graves” into cremains-speak). 😈
Marty, I’m confident they’ll try again but I strongly doubt they’ll do it in my tree. Hope I’m wrong…
Oh Ron.
I think all of us share your disappointment.
I am so very sorry to hear this.
Thanks, EC. It was a bit of a shock to see that smashed egg on the ground..
I have watched both Eurasian and mourning doves build their flimsy nests lay and egg and abandon the nest. In St George I watched a pair of mourning doves build 3 nests in the tress of the large park like inner courtyard of our condo, where they laid eggs in a couple but they did not stay and hatch the nests. I have always been perplexed by this. My daughter’s white doves will sit on a nest of eggs and not get off to eat. She pulls the eggs, and gives them dummies, but after a week she will pull the dummies so they will eat and move about.
I can’t explain what you describe, April. But in this case I’m confident she didn’t abandon the nest before the egg was destroyed, however it happened. I saw her incubating the evening before just after the sun set and by dawn the next morning she was gone and the egg was destroyed.
I share your disappointment (as well as your ambivalence) about the Eurasian Collared Doves, Ron. As annoying as they can be, the opportunity to watch the whole process from incubation to fledging so close-up would have been a terrific one. Perhaps some other birds will decide it’s a good spot for their chick-raising and rebuild that nest into something sturdier. Hope springs eternal, even in the days of CV19. 🐣
Chris, I’m afraid my eternal hope has become more transitory these days. Hopefully I’ll become more optimistic about a lot of things soon.
That nest appears to have been physically damaged rather than fallen apart. I watched a pair of Mourning Doves building a nest in a cottonwood tree in New Mexico. The male would bring in sticks and the female would take them, move them around a bit and about half the time just dropped them out on the ground. She had very exacting specifications for such a flimsy platform!
Nope, that’s what it looked like two days ago too, Ken. Maybe she was just an inexperienced nest builder.
Have faith, the season is young. Had to laugh about the Corvid note. I thought that was just me. Thanks as always for your pictures.
Nope, not just you, Anne. I actually spelled it wrong once on this post but thankfully I spotted it before I published. It’s very easy to do.
So much time and effort goes into building a nest, hatching and incubating. So, it’s sad when their hard work doesn’t pay off.
Our local eagle nest has for the last 3 years looked like it was always ready to collapse. Finally, this year they got it right❗️ We had a surprise little third head pop up the other day😁 3 eaglets, a first for this nest ❤️
I also was able to watch Cormorants building their nests at the tops of some flimsy trees.
That was something to see.
Monday was a great bird watching day❗️
Take Car All
Diana, this species builds their nest quickly and sloppily in either one or two days. The first egg was laid in this nest on the second day after they started building.
How sad that the dove nest failed, however, it’s early enough in the year that they’ll rebuild and start again!
That brings back memories of my house in Dallas, located in an old neighborhood with lots of old oak trees for nesting. The room I used as my office was a long room with windows all across and down one side and I put up a bunch of bird feeders to bring in birds. Along the driveway, I put up a bird house with a ring at the entrance to entice only chickadees, but that didn’t stop a pair of English sparrows from TRYING to move into it. Until the chickadees finally moved in, the sparrows looked like an old married couple with first the female, then the male, trying unsuccessfully to get in! It was comical!
But the best show was a pair of screech owls, both a gray phase (male) and a red phase (female) set up housekeeping in a nest box straight across the driveway from my side window! I was raising mice for hawk food, and since I had an over-abundance, I shared the bounty with the screech owl family. I put a big plastic bin in the driveway about 30 yards from the nest, dropped a live mouse or two in there and kept on walking back into the house. The screeches soon learned there was an easy (and safe) meal in there and retrieved it every time! When the time came, they rewarded me by staging their nightly hunts perched is the tree right outside my window. There were five kids, three grays and two reds and what a JOY watching them raise their kids and teach them how to be owls!!
I love birds! 😉
Needless to say I’m jealous of your Screech Owl experience, Laura.
I completely sympathize with your disappointment. Last year a pair of Mourning Doves made a nest and raised one chick in a wall planter near my backdoor. I knew nothing about their nesting behaviour beforehand, but I learned a lot as I observed the process and rejoiced in their success. This spring, I have had a least one pair show up, and investigate the location, but so far no takers. And as much as I was reluctant to avoid using the planter and the backdoor again this year, I am disappointed they didn’t setup house (not yet anyway)
!)
I hope your doves eventually nest in your planter this year, D.
That happens so often with birds of all kinds trying to reproduce. The male of our mating eagles disappeared for about three weeks during the raising of their one chick. Of course she had to leave the nest numerous times to fish for herself and the chick, and sure enough during one of those trips three ravens arrived and killed the chick. I was taking photos as it happened. She came back while they were there and had a battle with them, but the damage had been done. Sorry that you did not get to see the dove chicks.
That must have been tough for you to watch, Everett. I can only imagine.
It just occurred to me how shut-in’s must feel. I think I’ll shall find someone local that I can visit or do things for once this is over. It will be over, right? A dear friend lost her mother to this virus yesterday.
Arwen, my mother was essentially a shut in for the last few years of her life when she lived mostly with me. She always loved it when friends and neighbors came over to visit – thank you Vicky and Colleen!
I’m so sorry about your friend’s mother.
I share your disappointment. My emotional response to the loss of the dove’s nest is tears. Covid-19 has made me appreciate so many little joys. I was looking forward to your photos and observations as the mother dove incubated her eggs and both parents raised their youngsters. Would putting a dish feeder at the nest site give you a closeup diversion as various birds visit? That way the broken and abandoned nest will be replaced with songs and joyful snacking. (Does your neighborhood have raccoons?)
That’s something I might do as time goes on, Melanie. Right now my feeders are in the back yard so I have to be in my kitchen to see what’s going on out there. I just hope our hummers show up soon.
So much fun to read this, Ron! I was thinking it would be fun to share childhood stories of what our parents didn’t know…if we ever meet! Anyway, I wonder if you know the wonderful children’s song “My Pigeon House”…I’d love to sing it to you if not…you could text me and we could figure out how to. Its snowing here in Western MS…in the forest. à bientôt, Mary
Yes, I’ve heard that song, Mary. And the words get it exactly right. I used to love to fly my pigeons – tumblers, rollers and tipplers in particular.
I’m so sorry ,both for the pigeons’ loss, and for yours……for me, one of the
better parts of these shut-in days has been to watch a gang of sparrows
thrashing around in the birdbath outside my study window—and a quiet
dove in her nest, and the prospect of watching the little family grow, would
have been a real comfort .
“the prospect of watching the little family grow, would have been a real comfort .”
It sure would have. And all I’d have had to do to keep an eye on them was turn my head to my left while sitting at my computer. Oh well…
Darn! Tho realizing the longing for a “simpler time” may have entered into the level of disappointment you feel is good to know……. 😉 “What mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her” – think every kid has some of those little items in their history! 🙂 Then again many times parents DO know and just don’t say!
Judy, looking back my mother was right. Sure, there were a few things I did that she never found out about but I was so involved with my pigeons I didn’t have time to get into much trouble. Until girls came along…
“Until girls came along……” That tends to do it! 😀
I’m so sorry for your disappointment. Given the situation in the world now, finding a bright spot of hope and joy right outside your window and then losing it feels like a crushing loss. Two years ago, we had House Wrens nesting in a birdhouse outside our kitchen window. None last year. This year I’ve twice seen birds investigating it by flying in and out but it appears they didn’t find it satisfactory. I was surprised by how disappointed that left me. I hope your birds make another nest nearby for you to enjoy.
“I was surprised by how disappointed that left me.”
That’s me exactly, Linda. I sure didn’t anticipate the depth of my disappointment.