Tuesday, August 23, 2011

DOVE UPDATE

I snapped a picture this morning but I can't tell whether this is mother or father.


Maybe some of my "dove experts" can tell me.

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Later: SWMBO wisely suggested I look on the Internet to answer some of my questions.  So I did.  And I learned this: Incubation takes two weeks.  Mom and Pop take turns on the nest, he usually in the morning and early afternoon, she in the afternoon and night.  Also: when one or the other is flushed from the nest, it will typically flop to the ground and flutter around as if it has a broken wing.  This is to lure the predator away from the nest.  That's exactly what happened when I took today's picture.  The camera makes a little beep when it takes a photo and that apparently frightened the bird, which exploded off the nest and then down to the ground about six feet away and began fluttering around on the ground, one wing sort of acting like it wasn't working well.  Horrified, I retreated to the house and when I checked later, the bird was back on its nest.  Fortunately the rowdy departure had not dislodged the egg(s).

5 comments:

  1. Glad Mr. or Mrs. Dove returned to the nest. I was beginning to think of you as a brutish lout bent on a campaign of nest terrorizing.

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  2. We learn something new everyday. Good on you.

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  3. I just read yesterday that you can't tell the male dove from the female dove. We LOVE ours - they're just so funny.

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