Back On The Nest Again

Down here, despite the human population density, there is a lot of desert wildlife. Some we never see, like snakes, javelinas, scorpions, and we're happier for it. Some we hear, like coyotes and owls, and the very rare glimpse is adequate. We'd love to see the "house lizard"  more often, knowing once it creeps down the exhaust pipe over the range into the cupboard, it's not only cute but busy ridding our house of tasty creepy crawlies.

Mostly, what we see are birds. Everybody is supposed to refrain from feeding them, because no matter what you put out, the flying rats... excuse me, pigeons ... swoop in and gobble everything up. But the small doves, adorable quail, and whatever else the feed attracts, discourage almost everybody from paying any attention to that prohibition. Pigeons have even been known to overbalance hummingbird feeders in their greed, but nobody, ever, thinks of that as a reason not to feed our entertaining winged jewels.

Springtime down here is marked by many things. Plants flower. weeds sprout and spread with amazing speed, temperatures jump overnight from pleasant to OMG! It's 100! It's also breeding season for birds. In our yard, we assume there must be nests nicely hidden in the bushes and our remaining pine tree. We know two families try to nest on our roof.

Every year there is a pair of idiot pigeons that try to build a loose nest of sticks and twigs right over our front door. Every year that piece of roof has the same slant to it that it had the year before, and the twigs roll off into the garden. Even if it weren't for the pair's noise, or watching the many flights past out picture window, the growing pile tells us they're at it again. This year they went a step farther, and actually laid a pair of eggs into their non-nest, about two days apart. We know it was a pair of eggs. Each landed near the sticks down below.

The shells must be tough, because each only had a single thumbnail-sized hole in it upon landing. I did give a moment's thought to cleaning up the mess. Each morning after I was vindicated in my decision to let whichever hungry critter that was looking for dinner discover them and cart them off. The first time I kinda expected to see bits of shell scattered around and the insides slurped up. Whatever ate them apparently had a yen for calcium as well, as the ground was spotless.  It took losing two eggs for the pigeons to move elsewhere, but I fully expect to go through this next spring and the next. Meanwhile there's a pile of twigs to either clean up or let "the crew" take care of next fall.

This year was the first one a pair of doves has decided to nest on our roof. I do say pair even though we have never seen more than one. They seem to be having better luck. Maybe they're just smarter about the process.

The roof over our carport sustained a bit of damage. It had some when we bought the house, but sustained a bit more when we moved in. Below the shingled area there's a short extension of corrugated aluminum, just low enough that when the moving truck backs up that extra one inch, the edge crumples. All it does is channel water that's already lower than any possible entry into the house out over the driveway a bit. The only function I can see for it is keeping the owners of SUVs and pickups dry as they walk behind their vehicles on the two days a year it rains, if that happens to coincide with their chosen time to enter or leave their house. Even with the crumpling, it would still perform that function were it needed here, but is isn't and we see no need to spend money to replace it when the next moving van will just back into it again in a couple decades or so.

It does, however, provide a small shallow bowl for a dove nest with all three twigs to sit in. OK, three twigs is a guess, based on ground level sightings. This year there is a dove brooding on it. I say that out of ignorance and optimism. We still only ever see one bird on the nest. We've never seen an egg, but one or more could easily fit in the hollow. Not knowing the habits of doves, I'm assuming it's a "she" and refer to "her" mentally and verbally as such. Yes, I am aware of lots of animals where either both share nesting duties or the male is primary parent. However....

My first glimpse of her was about two weeks ago, returning to the house after dark from taking a couple bags of garbage out to the in-ground garbage cans our community provides its residents. (Honestly, I think that's as low as they dig anything in this ground.) I happened to look up just a I was about to pass under her, and let a startled, "Hello, Beautiful" escape my lips. She fled the nest and I didn't see her for a couple of days.

Then she was back, and has stayed there. While I have managed to take a couple of pictures from a distance, I have also been scrupulous about avoiding looking at her when I was anywhere close. I will pause, backing the car out, not only to look for traffic as I near the end of the driveway, but check for her continued presence on the nest. When I return from taking the garbage out in the evenings, I keep my head low lest eye contact could spook her.

Each day now I'm thinking it's about time for hatching, followed by a flurry of trips bringing feed to the nest. I've watched enough birds go through the cycles in Minnesota, and keep hoping to observe at least one reasonably close down here.

I'm keeping the camera ready.