Dove...

Before we left for our trip to the east coast we had noticed an egg on the ground by our tree in the front yard, a few days later there was just half of the same type of egg at the bottom of the same tree. When we found the first egg I did not think too much of it just an egg that fell from somewhere or was dropped by a bird that stole it out of a nest.... When we found the half egg I wondered if there was a nest in the tree so Nathan and I looked for a nest and wallah, there it was, with the dove sitting in it. I kept waiting for the baby bird to show itself, but never saw it or heard it. So we left on our trip. When we got back I thought surely there would be just an empty nest, I was wrong the momma bird was still sitting on the nest. Still no sign of baby dove, the weeks went on and still no babies, but EVERY time we looked at the nest there was the momma bird sitting on the nest. We left to go to Oklahoma City and when we came back there was no bird on the nest and Paul had seen 2 baby dove in the shrubs in the front yard. HOORAY, finally here was proof of real eggs that hatched , and this bird was not just crazy!! The babies hung around for a couple of days, then they were gone. This would make you think the nest would be empty and Nathan could knock it out of the tree to inspect, right? NO!! That mother bird was back on the nest. I do not know if it is the same dove pair or a new pair, I have NO clue, but I do know they take turns, when one is sitting on the nest the other is out then the dad will fly in and change places with the mother, this I have noticed while trying to see if she EVER left the nest because there is always a bird sitting on the eggs! Let me just say that a baby dove is no small baby, they are at least half or bigger than half the size of the full grown dove. I will continue to wait and see if there are more doves or if this bird is just nuts!

"baby dove"