Bird Watching

A few weeks ago we put some planters on our back porch, the kind that straddle the handrail.

It was not long after - about two days later - we saw a few strands of grass that looked like a hasty nest.

Sure enough, that planter had become the home of a pair of birds. They looked like doves, but they were not white. A couple of days after we first noticed the nest in the planter, we found an egg in the nest.

We did a little web search and found out they were mourning doves. The information said they laid eggs in clutches of two eggs at a time, and sure enough the next day, there were two eggs.

We could usually just see one bird in the nest at a time, usually the female. For a while she would spook fairly easily and flutter away to the far side of the backyard or onto the neighbor's roof, eventually flying back once we were away from the porch.

But after a little over a week, she stayed put no matter how close we got.

And tonight Susan was on the back porch investigating the bird when again the bird got flustered and flew off. Lo and behold, instead of eggs: two chicks!

It will be a week or two before the chicks are fledged and can fly on their own. If we get any more pics of these little ones, we'll update you on their growth.