Spring Symphony(Part 2)

Chronicle of Two Little Birdies

After waking up for three or four days in a row to a distinctive sound, a sort of high pitched rattling or flapping suggesting fleet motion, I found two doves and their nest on the camellia tree right outside of bedroom window, thereby I started my daily intent observation until they left me lost with the empty nest.

Day 1

On the first day I saw these doves, one of them was quietly sitting on the nest, which I assumed to be mommy dove, and the other, daddy dove, flitted back and forth. A few minutes into watching, I realized daddy dove was collecting twigs. They seemed to be alert and aware of my being there but not afraid.

Twig 1

Twig 2

Day 1-Twigging

The transferring of twigs between the doves was unusual and interesting, almost sort of a dance routine. The daddy dove flew back to the same branch in that same rattling rhythm and paused momentarily before flapping off to land on top of mommy dove and passing the twig over by mouth. After that first day however I have not seen them together again. It seemed that the daddy dove simply vanished. I wondered every day where the daddy bird was.

Day 6th

Mommy dove has been diligently doing her job since I started watching. Every time I looked, there she was on her nest. But on day 6th she took a break and exposed the eggs. There were two of them and one appeared to be bigger than the other.

Day 15th-Ducking her head under the leave

It’s been two weeks now and mommy dove has been devotedly incubating her babies, rain or shine, and it rained quite a bit, almost every 3 days.

Day 18th

I continued to watch every day. On the 18th day, I woke up to a gray sky and it was chilly. Opening up the blinds and ready to say hello to mommy dove as I had been doing, there was no sign of her but the nest. Wondering where mommy dove was off to this early, I thought something looked just a bit different. I looked again and realized the smaller of two eggs had hatched. So excited, I stared at the nest for a long while. When the tiny feathery ball squirmed, I was thrilled, completely. I did not want to move away from the window but I had to for a doctor’s appointment.

Back from the doctor’s appointment, I went straight to the window and checked on the nest. Nest was still exposed with no mommy dove around. I gawked at the tiny bird, found no movement at all this time and started to feel a little anxious. “Where is the mommy dove? Has she been away all this time? It was in the mid 50s out there, is it too cold for the teeny-weeny birdie?” and then I thought:”Give the mommy dove a little time, maybe she will be back soon.”

Two hours later, it was mid afternoon and the day felt chillier. I checked on the birdie again and saw the same sight out there, no sign of mommy dove and still not any motion from the little birdie either. “Has it, died?” I felt anguish now and resentful towards the adult doves:”How could they have left their baby unattended for so long?” Then I went to my computer and started searching on “Do doves leave their babies right after hatching? How to rescue a baby dove? Etc.”

Thirty minutes of research later, I got up from my computer and walked back to the nest, pondering to call wild animal control or start my own rescue mission, to my extreme relief, mommy dove was back on the nest. Or maybe it was daddy dove? When I was surfing about saving the baby dove, I read that the male dove usually takes over the incubating at night when the mommy dove gets to rest. So the daddy dove had not simply disappeared after all.

Day 19th-3 baby doves?

On the next day, day 19th, it was drizzling. I found the nest exposed again early in the morning and there was one more feathery ball in it. Were there three baby doves or two plus an empty egg shell?

Day 20th

The adult dove(s) were back to pre-hatching routine after the hatching of two baby birds. I wondered if there was another one coming.

Day 21st

By day 21st, it seemed definite, there were two baby doves, and the empty egg shell had fallen to the ground. In general, they did not move much but every now and then, they squirmed a little and cuddled snuggly together the entire time.

Day 22nd

The doves continued to sit on the nest majority of the time. Occasionally, I could see some little part of the nestling(s) try to poke out from underneath the adult dove but quickly sank back into the nest. It was an utterly cute scene and I wondered how it was to progress.

Day 23rd

On day 23rd, I woke up to an exposed nest. When I looked again, the nest appeared to be empty. I couldn’t believe my eyes; no way were the baby birds ready yet, right? I checked again and again, from different heights and angles, using my camera, camcorder and binoculars. Eventually I had to concede, they were gone.

Day 31st, it’s been more than a week and they have not returned. I wish them full happy lives.