As we walked to Tae kwan do testing, Lead Goofball just happened to look up in one of the many trees (pretty sure she was scoping out the best climbing tree) and spied this excitement:
A Dove in his or her nest! The daddy or mama was taking very good care of his or her eggs, sitting incredibly still, especially when we noticed it. So we were able to get a really good look at him or her.
Look at the turquoise "eye shadow", just stunning! Both male and female have the blue around the eyes. It's one of the ways that you can tell it is a Mourning Dove instead of an Eurasian Collared Dove or White-Winged Dove.
Unfortunately, we didn't have the mate around to compare and visibility wasn't great, so it was difficult to distinguish if it was the male or female. The nape of the neck and breast of the male are a pinkish color, and they are also larger in size than the female. Both birds will sit on the eggs, (the female lays two white eggs) the male takes the day shift and the female the night. We were there in the evening, so again, hard to tell if it was the male's day shift or the female just starting hers. According to www.birdinginformation.com They do this for about 13 days, and can raise up to 6 broods a year. The male provides the sticks for the female to build her nest.
As far as nests go, this one certainly wasn't impressive. It looked quite shallow, "messy" and barely big enough. Here's the tail end hanging out the other side!
All in all it was a very fun discovery- our first Dove nest! You just never know what you might find or who might be watching you as you head out into the world!
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