Watering Plants When Nesting In Plants

by Lorraine
(Massachusetts)

Question: Should I water the hanging plant????

Mourning Doves nested in a hanging plant that hangs a couple of feet from the window in our den. We literally walk about 1 foot from the plant when we come up the steps to enter the house.

At first we noticed just the nest, then one egg, and a couple of days later a second egg :-)

During the first week the dove would fly away when we went out or came in, now it doesn't even move when we walk by. The babies should be hatching any day now - it's almost been two weeks.

We haven't watered the plant and it is seriously dropping, but I worry about protection for the birds. Do they need the foliage? Should I water to revive the plant?

Baby Doves

The babies have arrived! At first we couldn't see them because they stayed under the parent all the time. Then we started to see 2 mounds of eathers underneath mom/dad. Today, they are sitting out on their own. Here are some pics.

Our Mourning Dove

by slcards5
(Arkansas)

Our dove hatched yesterday morning and now there is not a parent with the baby. She was there this morning but hasn't been seen all day long. What can we do? Notice how she made her nest in the hanging basket.

Our New Adopted Family

by Carrie Varnell
(Plano, TX USA)

Several weeks ago, my family and I were in our backyard grilling some hamburgers, when a bird suddenly flew out from under the porch.

We had no idea that a nest had been built…on the top wrung of our ladder. It’s leaning up against a wall by our porch and now it’s home to a family of doves.

Try explaining that to your neighbor when he calls to borrow your ladder.

Whenever I let my dog out in the morning, I would go out and wish a “good morning” to the mama dove and she would stare blankly back at me.

There was some discussion in the beginning as to whether or not she was even real, since she sits pretty much motionless.

We now know, thanks to this website, that its not just the mama bird that sits on the nest, but the daddy bird as well. Which is kind of cool. The parallel was not lost on my husband.

I would sit at my kitchen table doing some work, watching the mama bird sit there motionless. Talk about patience. She’s definitely in line for “Mother of the Year”.

Finally, after two long weeks, there appeared two large baby birds. It was kind of humorous seeing them all, mama and babies, crammed into that nest.

After a few days, the baby birds moved out of the nest and into the shrubs.

It took them a couple of days to get the hang of flying and not smacking into my windows upon takeoff, but eventually they were pros at being birds and I’m sure they are happy in a tree somewhere not far from my house.

This was a really fun experience to watch and I love all the great things my kids and I have learned from the Dove Family.

I think the Dove Family has adopted us too, because they’re raising more baby birds…on the top wrung of our ladder.

I think it’s time we invested in a nesting shelf.

Palm Tree Doves

by Juniper
(Scottsdale, AZ)

I work in an office building in Mesa, AZ. It is a new building that was built a little over 2 years ago. There are palm trees along the outside of the building some reaching up to 50 feet high. Tree trimmers will come and trim the trees which leaves short pieces of trimmed palm stalks.

I have a window in my office that looks out to the parking lot. There are about 2 palm trees right outside.

One day I was sitting at my desk and noticed some birds outside my window. I looked and two mourning doves were sitting on one of the trimmed trunks right outside my window.

The windows of our office building are tinted and have a mirror like reflection, so I can look right out my blinds at them and they don't see me at all. I'm glad I didn't scare them away.

They must have built a nest and laid eggs. It didn't look like a nest just a few twigs stuck into the tree trunk.

I came into the office on Monday morning and noticed wings flapping outside my window. There was momma bird feeding two rather large baby birds.

I was so surprised that I took pictures and sent them too all the people in my office building. People are always stopping by to see the momma and babies.

I Sure hope the babies are strong flappers. They have been stretching their wings, and it seems like momma leaves for longer periods of time during the day.

The sidewalk and parking lot are right below their nest. I really hope that they decide to start flying on the weekend when none of the cars are around.

I would like to see their first flight, but I'd rather they be flying when it is safer. Hope you all enjoy this little family as much as we do. =)

Satellite Nesting Doves

by Martyn Dickinson
(Nottingham England)

First time I noticed a pair of doves nesting is when the picture on the tv was going on and off.

I went upstairs looked out of the bedroom window, and noticed a dove passing twigs to its partner as one of them was building a nest on back of my satellite dish.

They were building the nest for a couple of days and I noticed fallen twigs on the path below the dish.

One day as I looked out of the window to see how they were getting on I noticed the doves were no longer there. It looked as if they had left a half built nest. Thinking to myself they must have gone elsewhere.

A few hours later the picture on the tv went off again, so I went out of the back door looked up and our featherd friends had retured and roosting on the nest.

Daily me and the wife open the window to see how they are getting on and not once do they look alarmed at our presence in doing so.

My wife has named them Boris & Doris and with all the satellite dishes all around us we are honoured they have choosen ours to nest.

Mr M Dickinson
Nottingham
England

Satellite Doves Update

Boris

Took a better picture of my satellite doves who are still nesting, On reading about the birds its Boris nesting during the day and Doris takes over later in the evening.

The food we have been putting out has been taken by them as well with other birds, just hope the chicks stay on the nest when they hatch being such a small nest, fingers crossed.

Update 3


Rosie & Jim

Satellite Doves Baby's Have Left The Nest

Like most things in life baby's are born, they grow up, then they leave and thats what happend to Boris & Doris young.

Over the weeks we watched the eggs hatch and slowly they grew bigger and bigger so much so Boris & Doris couldn't roost on the nest with them.

Then my wife noticed the baby doves "By the way, the wife called them Rosie and Jim" on the front of the dish and then they took there first flight and left, "a sad moment" and we didn't see them for a while until we saw fluttering in the tree in our garden and it was mum & dad feeding the baby's, it was a relief that they were ok.

I hope they will nest again on the dish it was a pleasure watching them progress.