And then there were three

Sixteen days ago, I got up with the sun (5:30 a.m.) and pulled a ton of weeds along the fence between my property and the open space preserve. I left a huge pile of weeds, figuring I would haul them to the trash later. I took a shower and a nap.

When I went out to the gardens to get my daily snapshots of flowers, I leaned in close near a hanging basket and something hit me in the head and flew away. I didn’t see what it was, but I did see this in the hanging basket:

That was not there six hours earlier. Mommy, presumably with help from daddy, found my pile of weeds, built a nest a few feet away, and deposited two eggs in only four or five hours. Fortunately, after me disturbing mommy (presumably), she came back to take care of those eggs:

Research indicates that it takes about 14 days for mourning dove eggs to hatch and another 15 days for the little ones to leave the nest and go exploring the world.

I got a picture of a little bird on Day 13.

And on Day 14, today!, I got a picture of two little birds!

And then there were three. I’m so happy! Now our goal is to help mommy protect these two little ones for the next couple of weeks so they can fly away, fly away.

Cloudy, rainy, sunny day

It’s a cloudy, rainy(!) day here in San Diego.

The sun came out for just a few minutes, and so did the mourning doves.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

The birds don’t come around for Black Sabbath and Rush

PICTURE OF THE MOMENT

 

Zoey the Cool Cat has lots of friends. I’m her BFF; she knows where her food comes from. However, if she could get to some different food….

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

 

The mourning doves are quite friendly — they also know where their food comes from! However, whenever I go outside they do fly away. I was coming in from the car the other day and this one just sat there and watched me. I was snapping pictures and walking toward it to see how close I could get. At about three feet, said mourning dove flew away.

If I would take the screens off my office windows and, maybe, uh, wash the windows, I could probably have lots of great pictures of mourning doves, house finches, western bluebirds, and cedar waxwings since the feeder is literally 15 inches on the other side of my computer monitor. What price for a great picture….

The birds don’t mind Zoey the Cool Cat and me being so close to them. Perhaps they can’t see through the screen? Maybe they know we can’t get to them through the screen…. Are they smarter than we think?

I have noticed that the birds don’t come around if I play head-banging music (Black Sabbath, Rush) too loud. What’s with that?

 

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!