Return of the Return of the Return of the Mourning Doves

Phil Elmore

Phil Elmore

Joined
Feb 28, 2002
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Well, my superstition that Mourning Doves like Christmas lights has paid off yet again. I've blogged extensively on MySpace about the Mourning Doves who came to nest on our air conditioner amidst some Christmas lights that I left up there to dry off. I forgot about the lights, and the next thing we knew, we had Mourning Doves hatching cute little baby birds, delighting us with their haunting calls in the morning and evening. I even set up a remote camera so we could watch them on the nest.

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Now, Spring is here, and our doves appear to have returned yet again. I left some lights out after Christmas, deliberately, and they seem to like them, as I thought they would. As I write this, one of them is out there now, calling to his (or her) mate.

The nest is typically half-assed; Mourning Doves make terrible nests. The first year we hosted doves, they had only one baby, and subsequently there was a nest with two little dovelings. It will be interesting to see what this year brings.
 
Cool Phil! I'd heard of other people having similar experiences but always second hand. At the last place we lived, we watched 5 generations of doves nest on my plant shelf on the front porch. A few days ago I was told that they are back again. Kinda cool imo. They do a 12 on, 12 off rotation sitting on those eggs and tend to like places that are sheltered, usually under overhangs.

I've got better photos but these were handy:

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Beautiful shots. I've got some that are similar, of the mother sitting atop her babies, from previous years.
 
Sharp Phil said:
Beautiful shots. I've got some that are similar, of the mother sitting atop her babies, from previous years.
Click to expand...

Thanks Phil. I believe those shots are from the 1st gen here as well. My lady actually wrote a kid's book about the birds (and the return of the return of....) and used some of my photos as page filler. Some day, she may even try and publish it.
 
They are fun to shoot and they are fast little buggers. I eat all I shoot.
 
Mourning Doves Mate for life and will return to the same spot to roost year after year. We had a Blue Jay nest on our porch a few years back in one of our grape vine wreaths of the Milf. Anyway the bird got so used to us coming and going she stayed on the nest. We even were able to feed her out of our hand. My kids would catch her bugs and feed her.
 
We used to keep corn out for the squirrels, and the Bluejays loved it. They'd land with a heavy thump, make some nasty squawking noises, and then fly off again.
 
I am currently hosting a pigeon nest in the front yard. I got my ladder up there under the eaves to pigeon proof it like I did the side of my house. However, I have to wait, there are already eggs. My wife goofed on me, and called me a softie for my kind act. I of course could not mess with mamma pigeon and her soon to be family. I will put up the no vacancy sign and scrape the nasty poo when she is gone.
 
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