Doves survive hurricane Michael

by Jeanette Tindel
(Panama City, FL )

Our home was at the center of hurricane Michael. We stayed at home and survived the category five storm.

We watched as the eye wall passed over our house.

Before Michael our yard was full of large, old oak trees. Every year all types of birds would return to their nesting spots.

When the hurricane passed, we went outside to find all our beautiful trees down.

Some were thru our roof, two in our pool and others just laying on top of each other like matchsticks.

The hurricane blew down part of our screened back porch and totally blew out all the screens. We had to put shelving on the porch to store miscellaneous items as we found them in the yard.

On the very top shelf we placed a life jacket.

I began to notice after a few days there was something on top of the life jacket.

I was in the process of having a contractor give me an estimate on repairing the porch when I discovered a dove in a nest on top of the life jacket.

The repairs were put on hold. I watched as the doves flew in and out of the unscreened porch for a couple of weeks.

Then one morning I saw two baby dove heads pop up. I watched as they grew and momma and daddy’s fed them.

In the midst of the hurricane and turmoil the doves found a safe haven to have their babies. Such a lesson in survival.