A Scattering

Announcing the arrival of Darwin and Martin, at the very least the 4th pair of chicks for June and Ward, our resident free-loading Mourning Doves.

To back-track to late April, we first noticed a pair of Mourning Doves had taken up residence above our front door, on the ledge below the transom window. Geoff named them June and Ward Cleaver. By the end of May the first two chicks, Wally and The Beave had successfully hatched and fledged.

Two days later mama and papa were back on the nest with two more eggs, sadly they abandoned these two less than a week later.

Then they disappeared for quite awhile - I believe they probably raised two more chicks close by in this neighbourhood.

On July 28th I discovered, while watering my hanging pots of ivy geranium, that June and Ward had returned to our veranda and two more eggs were being incubated. These chicks hatched on or about August 8th, the opening day of the Beijing Olympics, so I named this pair Beijing and China. By August 21st these wee ones had fledged and the nest was empty again.

I really thought mama and papa were probably done breeding for this season but they had news for me and on August 30th I discovered Ward back on the nest, taking care of two more eggs. Now that Darwin and Martin have hatched, I'm thinking they just might be the last pair of chicks for this season, but I've been wrong before.......