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<\/p>\nNope, 6 feet\u00a0isn’t an exaggeration or a typo. I actually measured the distance.<\/p>\n
Several days\u00a0ago while I was culling images on my desktop computer I noticed some unusual activity in\u00a0my catalpa tree just outside my window to my left. It was a pair of Mourning Doves building their nest and as you can imagine it did get my attention! They were so close I almost could have opened the side window and reached out and touched them and they were so tame with me that close I think\u00a0they might\u00a0have actually\u00a0let me.<\/p>\n
I suspect they’d been working on the\u00a0nest for some time\u00a0so they were used to me sitting there\u00a0during their construction project. When I’m working on a blog post or processing or culling images I’m pretty oblivious to everything around me\u00a0so I hadn’t noticed\u00a0all the activity just a few feet away.<\/p>\n
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I resurrected this older photo to give viewers some perspective (yup, that’s booze in my hand, I was\u00a0thanking and toasting\u00a0my blog readers in an older post and the photo is larger than I usually post). The nest is in the tree just outside my window and it’s less than a foot further away than the closest leaves you see. Catalpa trees leaf out late so there’s no leaves on the tree right now so the nest is very easy to see. In fact, given where it is I think it’ll still be in plain view even when the leaves come out (the actual nest is\u00a0a few inches\u00a0further\u00a0to the left than we can see here).<\/p>\n
You know me, I really wanted to photograph the nest-building activity but I was worried about disturbing them so it took me a day or so to figure out how I could photograph them without making them nervous. I removed a window screen (out of frame to the left), set up a camera on a tripod and pointed it in the direction of the opening toward the nest. The doves can’t see me because I have the window drapes hiding everything but the business\u00a0end of my lens.<\/p>\n
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1\/100, f\/8, ISO 800, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 112mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is the female two evenings ago\u00a0on the nearly completed nest (she isn’t incubating eggs yet).\u00a0Usually the light in the tree is incredibly contrasty so I waited until just before sunset to take a\u00a0few photos of her in the very low but golden light. Regular readers know that 1\/100 second shutter speed is territory I almost never\u00a0visit with my style of bird photography and in this very low light the only saving factor that allowed sharp shots was my use of a tripod and her lack of movement as I took the photo.<\/p>\n I learned something new while I watched them build their nest from my desk. I was surprised to see that most times when the male delivered a twig to the female on the nest he stood on her back as he presented it to her. Pigeons and doves have many similar behaviors and I raised pigeons as a kid but that was a behavior I don’t remember seeing in pigeons so I did a little research and sure enough, here’s what Cornell’s Birds of North America has to say on the matter:<\/p>\n Common birds but an uncommon behavior and I was fascinated to see it multiple times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/60, f\/8, ISO 800, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 112mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Nine minutes later I had even less light but she had turned on the nest which gave me a different perspective.<\/p>\n The first egg is usually laid within two days of nest completion and that time frame will be up sometime today but I haven’t seen the doves for almost that long. During construction they’re usually only at the nest in the morning hours and lately I’ve been out shooting during that time so maybe they’ve been here and maybe they haven’t. It’s possible that they’ve abandoned this nest and moved on. I’ve avoided the area of the nest tree since\u00a0I first noticed the doves but I do have close neighbors with\u00a0little kids and that may have been just a little too much commotion for them.<\/p>\n I’ll be sad if they don’t return but I feel honored\u00a0to have been allowed a peek into their world while I sat at my desk. I’ll keep readers posted either way.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nope, 6 feet isn’t an exaggeration or a typo. I actually measured the distance.<\/p>\n\n
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