Mourning Doves - A Joy to Watch

by Joy Yorba
( Linda, CA)

At the end of May, we noticed a Mourning Dove bird sitting in a nest right out side of our garage in a vine.

The nest is hidden from the front, but when we open the garage, we can see the backside of the vine where the nest is.

That bird just sat and sat all day and all night long (so I thought!).

On June 1st, my husband said he saw a bird switch places with the one in the nest.

So for the next few evenings, we kept an eye out and we saw them switch again. I even caught it on video. So cool!

When the bird was in the nest, her eyes were open, maybe a quick blink. But when I would call to her quietly and say "Hi birdie" and make a soft clicking noise, she would close and open her eyes slowly.

Reminded me of my dog when I would pet her. This could just be my imagination, but it happened a few times. She did not seem scared.

On June 7th, we noticed a baby bird in the nest! Mama was gone, but she returned later.

Two days later, on June 9th, we saw another baby bird.

It might have been there at the same time as the first baby, but since the nest is kind of high, we might not have seen it.

I was wondering if there was enough room in the nest, but mama did return and they were snuggled in there with one of the babies under her neck.

The other one was in there too, but we could only see it's back side.

On June 11th, we were in the backyard and noticed either mama or papa bird walking back and forth near our gate.

It was closed and we have chicken wire at the bottom as it was to prevent my sister's dog from escaping when we used to watch her 6 months ago, we just never took it off.

The bird seemed to want to go to the front yard looking for an opening at the bottom, but couldn't find one.

After the bird walked back and forth multiple times and did not fly over the gate, I then walked slowly and opened the gate and the bird walked out to the front. We have video of this too!

Today, June 12, we looked at the nest as usual and the nest was empty. Sad and happy at the same time.

Sad they are gone as they were a joy to watch. But happy knowing the baby birds were old enough to fly away.

I have been posting my pics and comments on my Facebook page for the past few weeks. My friend commented and told me they were Mourning Doves, which I did not know.

I searched the internet and found your Wild Bird Watching website and read the article.

I'm so glad to have found all this wonderful information! Thank you!

It makes these past few weeks of bird watching even more special. My next thought was wondering if they would return or not.

After reading this article, I am going to keep an eye out!

I have several pictures and videos. So hard to choose which one to select. Mama/Papa or baby.