Doves start out early. By that I mean, they lay two eggs even when the weather may snow on them. The dove had nested in our herb-box, under an ever-bearing strawberry plant. By accident I scared her away one cold morning. She stayed gone forever, it seemed. I thought for sure her two eggs would die because of the cold. But, she stuck with it. She sat and sat and sat on them eggs. I know she didn't hunt for food. Her mate must have sustained her.
Meanwhile, the strawberries ripened all around her. As usual, my wife and I didn't get a ripe one. The squirrels have a knack beating us to the crop. I can just see momma dove, after the eggs hatched looking eyeball to eyeball at those feisty squirrels.
Three weeks of sitting and being vigilant, daring cats and snakes, the babies slept under her downy belly. Soon they got too big for the momma to hide them. Their little beaks stuck out the side of the momma. All this time, the daddy helped feed the bunch.
Then in a flutter one flew away. A couple of days later the second one did as well.
Would you believe it, It wasn't two weeks after that, two new eggs were in the same spot. Life started over again. another cycle, with God looking after it all. Was it the same pair of doves?
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2 comments:
Probably the same one. When I lived in Roanoke, a dove hatched a couple of families a year on a pillar in my carport.
Oh, so cute! Great pictures!
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