This lovey-dovey pair of collared doves have built a nest in a hawthorn tree just five metres from our bedroom window,
This offers an excellent opportunity to watch their nest-building skills, which are rudimentary - just a few twigs heaped together in the branches of the tree, which the female just sits on and turns around in a circle a few times, to flatten them with her breast feathers, then a few minor adjustments with her beak and that's it. Not one of nature's construction masterpieces..... but it seems to suffice, judging by the remarkable breeding success of these attractive birds.
Watching this pair raise a family is going to be interesting (and a little nerve-racking, as there are magpies nesting at the bottom of the garden). So far their incessant soporific call is a novelty; I'm not sure how I'll feel about it after a week or two when I've been woken up by it at dawn every morning ......
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We once had a pair create a 'nest' on the bracket that holds the sky dish! They succeeded in raising a youngster despite the precarious nature of their habitation.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to a pictorial record of the Collared Doves brood. Their monotonous call drives me up the wall, especially when they sit on the chimney and it echoes down in the room.
ReplyDeleteWish this nest site was in my garden. Being a video man I would make a lovely little film of the new neighbours.
ReplyDeleteLovely birds. I hope their call is not as nerve racking as the koel's.
ReplyDeleteThey do seem to be reckless nesters, don't they John..?
ReplyDeleteHi John, I think they're the noisiest birds in the garden at the moment...
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try to photograph their progress David, but I think the unfolding hawthorn leaves will soon hide them...
ReplyDeleteHi lotusleaf, they are remarkably affectionate to each other - a devoted couple...
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