![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/eurasian-collared-dove-8137-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"eurasian-collared-dove-8137-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI thought I might have a welcome and entertaining avian distraction during the Covid-19 lockdown. Not gonna happen.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/eurasian-collared-dove-nest-8238-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"eurasian-collared-dove-nest-8238-ron-dudley\\"")
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But she wasn’t in the nest and neither were any eggs, including the one that had been laid the day before.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/broken-eurasian-collared-dove-egg-8235-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"broken-eurasian-collared-dove-egg-8235-ron-dudley\\"")
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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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/me-dennis-and-pigeons.jpg\" "\\"me-dennis-and-pigeons")
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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…<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I just wish the news was better.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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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!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought I might have a welcome and entertaining avian distraction during the Covid-19 lockdown. Not gonna happen.<\/p>\n