A healthy garden supports more than plants. This year a pair of mourning doves built a nest, using stuff from the garden.
We first noticed two doves digging around for sticks and dried plants.
I think the female dove was yellower, and the male more gray.
They both took turns sitting up there.
Suddenly one morning we noticed they seemed warier than usual.
There was new rubbish below the nest.
We decided to take a trip up the ladder and spy on our neighbors.
Xentrik does her St. Francis imitation.
The dove wasn't pleased by the paparazzi.
He had two little chicks to worry about.
One of the chicks already looked bigger and livelier than the other.
I had read that the healthiest of the chicks sometimes takes over... completely.
Sure enough, a few days later, the feeble chick had been pushed out into the cold.
It wasn't pretty.
The surviving chick grew quickly.
One morning when I brought out the ladder, two big doves flew out of the nest.
They never came back.
Within a few hours, the April wind had blown it all away.
If the topics aren't visible on the left, try this.