Since I have nothing better to do this morning I thought I would take a moment to share an update with you on the dove nest that has taken over my potted plant outside on the porch.
May 26th: While watering my plants I spotted some unusual brown in the plant. Rather than pull it out, I decided to get a chair to see what it was first. As I suspected, it looks like that Dove has chosen to nest here again this year. Now I love birds, and most all of the rest of God's creatures too, but she had better not kill my plant or we are gonna fight!
May 27th: It looks like Mama-Bird has decided on a family of two this year. I took this photo the following day. I had to shoo her from the nest to get a good picture, but it's ok as long as you don't touch the nest or get your scent on it. If she smells me on it, she'll abandon the eggs and try again somewhere else.
June 12: One day old. She actually hatched these on the 11th, but I didn't want to rush her off her nest that early, so I had to wait until the babies were older to get this picture. I waited until she was off hunting food for the family before sneaking up to check in on things.
June 14: The babies are looking good, but still haven't opened their eyes yet. She caught me on her return trip and chattered at me angrily from the porch rail until I left her babies alone.
June 15: Their eyes opened up today for the first time. Not really sure what I am, they don't have enough sense to be either scared or curious yet, so they just sit there placidly awaiting food. They originally thought I was coming to feed them. When I put the camera up over them, they responded as if I was their mother bringing a snack.
June 18: They are now eight days old and their feathers are starting to thicken and cover their little bodies. At this point, they are about two inches from breast to tail, still very small.
June 22nd: Now at eleven days old, they will soon be gone off into the wild. You can see their feathers are fairly developed at this point and they are developing reflexes and movement patterns. They've learned enough behavior from their mother to be wary of me now. The one in the back almost fell out of the nest trying to back away from me. I'll try to get more pictures before they are gone completely for the year, but I don't know many more I'll get the opportunity to get.
In related news, the rest of my patio garden is doing well. My cucumbers are starting to grow, tomatoes are ripening, and my passion-fruit flower is doing its own thing like it always does.
Cucumbers on the vine, almost ready for picking.
This is my Better Boy tomato bush, sporting three tomatoes. Considering the tomato problem this season I think I'm the only one in town with fresh tomatoes. I don't even like the darned things.
This is my upside-down tomato plant. This is a cherry-tomato bush, so it won't get very big or very heavy. At the time of this writing there are about eight baby tomatoes starting, so we'll see how that goes next week. This is the first upside-down tomato I've ever grown and already it's outperforming my regular bush.
Great Pictures ! So cool to see the birds grow . My sister would be so jealous of your tomatoes .
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