This male mourning dove feeds his hour old hatchling for the first time. He also is sitting on a second egg, which hasn’t hatched, yet. The adult’s head bobbed up and down during the feeding; the hatchling following the movement. The body of the adult was heaving as well; regurgitating. I have read that this regurgitation is the production of “pigeon’s milk” for the youngling.
I had a very nice fairy garden set up on some shelves on my back porch this summer. It was made up of geodes, Dept 56 fairy tale house, and fairy figurines. One day, I noticed the fairy figurines had been tossed off the shelf and replaced instead with a small grouping of sticks. I threw the sticks off the shelf, thinking my husband had did this as a joke. But he said he had no idea how the rearrangement occurred. Until the next day, we noticed that the fairies were gone once again and this time you could tell a nest was being built amongst the geodes. The next morning, my husband woke me up and exclaimed, “I know who is building the nest!” And I got up, looked outside and saw two mourning doves working together; one sitting and forming the nest and the other going and getting twigs. They were so beautiful and the nest so perfectly situated next to the fairy house, that we decided to let them stay. I did some research and found out who the female and male were. In this picture, the male had just given the female a branch to add to the nest. She searched amongst the other twigs and then, very carefully positioned the twig into the nest. It was fun & interesting to see them work together. They would work for awhile in the morning and then, disappear for the rest of the day, returning the next day to continue. They did this for about 4 days and then, finally stayed on the nest, after laying 2 white eggs.
Mamma and Daddy Wren are getting ready for their little family
While watching nesting loons, I kept hearing squeaky noises behind me. I turned my kayak toward the shoreline and saw this Northern Flicker feeding chicks!
This was the first nest of Bluebirds we have ever had at this house. The nest box had sparrows in it 6 or 7 years ago and nothing since. We were all so excited to have Bluebirds! I found an egg on the ground and this little one and the two older ones. This was the last time i saw this little one, though. He was so much smaller than his siblings and I was so afraid he would not make it.
This picture was taken on about the 12th day? The others grew so fast and this little one just couldn’t keep up i guess. I am so glad I have this picture of Little Baby Blue. I love it. The look on his face is priceless to me.
Every chance I had I visited this nest. These little babies were adorable to watch as they all fought to look out of the nest. I love how the one on the very left eyes is closed as if it is annoyed with its siblings.