Monday, May 5, 2008

New tenants

This is our third spring in the new house (new to us, but built in 1920), and for the third time we have birds nesting in the southeast corner of the front porch. Robins built the original structure two years ago, and it was used by house finches last year. Both pairs successfully fledged young.

Now it's the mourning doves' turn; they've added a bit of dried grass atop the old robin nest, and lined it with green grass. Hope it turns out as well for them.

3 comments:

Henry Chappell said...

Nice pic. For the past several years we've had a mourning dove nest on top of the shade structure over the dog houses. Drives the dogs crazy, but Maggie can't quite jump high enough to reach it, and I keep her dog house far enough to one side that she can't jump on it and then jump up and chomp at the nest. So far this year, no dove. I kind of miss it.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Doves are always so nonchalant about their nests-amazing that they can reproduce.

Mark Churchill said...

One of my dachshunds, Anya, thinks she's a bird dog. Don't get me wrong, she's enthusiastic about rabbits, but she's made it her mission in life to catch a bird. Mourning doves, robins, grackles—she never fails to chase them, despite the fact that she's never come close. (She might fare better if she ever learned to approach stealthily, instead of barking her little head off.) Fortunately, the doves on the nest sit so stock-still that she hasn't really seen them.

I see your point, Chas, about doves' nonchalance, but I think our porch is a good choice of site: well-sheltered from both weather and avian predators, and of course well out of mini-dachshund range even if Anya were to suddenly take notice.