Doves Nest On Wooden Cubby

by Catherine
(Tucson, AZ)

Hi! I'm in Tucson. We have a small townhouse with a carport that we've made into a garage. In the garage there's a wooden "cubby hole" unit, about 4 1/2' high.

The other day we noticed that a pair of doves were hanging out and seemed to be courting, flying into the garage from the open area between the front door and the door from the house into the garage.

We have a wrought iron front gate so we have a protected front patio area. The doves kept coming in and the one, assume the female, began fluffing out her back feathers in what we thought was a "love dance". When she did this the other would groom her.

Over a couple of days they kept coming in and sitting on top of the wooden unit...until yesterday, when the sticks started to pile.

We've been keeping the garage-house door open during the day while the weather's been nice and they don't seem to be disturbed by our movements, even when I've gone out to back out the car.

During the day today the pile grew, and she continued to accept the sticks, even when her mate would stand on top of her to drop them over her to the other side of their nesting area.

In the evening the last couple of nights they were both gone...until tonight. After the sun went down I went to close the door and I noticed she was still there.

I just went to check out the window, at 11:00, and there she sits. I'm assuming this means that she's now laid her eggs, which I hadn't seen earlier in the day when she was still leaving every once in awhile It's such a beautiful thing to share, watching the whole process.

Last year we had a quail lay 10 eggs over a couple of weeks in a large planter. Out of the 10, she left 3 of the weaker ones behind, one passed away and we found a "bird lady" who was able to take the other two and they did quite well.

It's a real pleasure being able to watch it all. The wildlife in our small complex must "talk" to each other, as my mother puts out seed for the birds, has started to feed a small bunny family that comes between the houses, and is known to put out dryer fluff for the cactus wrens who feed in our yard and who have also built a nest in one of our hanging pots. I told her we must be the Home Depot in the animal world!

Thanks for the great site, I'll let you all know when the babies come. I'll try to get a photo up.