Doves in Peg Basket

by Ellen
(Ayr, Qld. Australia)

One morning I came to the clothes line to hang clothes and found a Dove had made its nest in my beg basket hanging on the clothes line.

The peg basket was full to the brim and the nest was on top. I needed to hang clothes so I removed the nest to a hanging basket not far away and used half the pegs.

By afternoon it had built a new nest in the half full basket and immediately laid one egg. The next day it laid the second egg.

This was in January right in the middle of the Monsoons and we had lots of wind and rain. I tried to shield the nest from the elements as best I could pegging plastic on the line above the nest. After two weeks the eggs hatched.

On the dry days I would hang my clothes on the line and the Dove would not be disturbed - occasionally it would fly out of the nest if I approached quickly but most times it would just make a grunting sound if I spoke to it.

I could not understand why the mother didn't seem to bring any food to the nest as other birds do. So I was glad to read on this Web Site the habits of Doves and how they feed their young - reverse to most birds.

I also could not understand why there was not a father bird around at times. This also was answered on this site.

When the birds were about a week old and not even properly feathered I looked into the nest early in the morning and one bird was gone. The next day the other bird was gone.

I read on this site where they can jump out of the nest but it was about five feet from the ground. Could this be possible or could anyone tell me what other answer there is for this. No sign of the mother bird since.

Thank you for allowing me to tell my story and to find some answer.
Ellen