A few days ago, Mary Jo discovered that a dove has made a little nest in one of our windowboxes out of few scraps of cotton and some plastic-looking stuff. The little visitor doesn’t seem fazed by our continued curiosity — “You know those city doves,” Mary Jo observed. “Cars, motorcycles, people throwing bottles. They’ve seen it all. Nothing scares them.”

Yesterday Mary Jo carefully watered the plants in the windowbox and took pains to avoid pushing her luck. She succeeded; the dove was very accommodating as Mary Jo carefully watered around where the bird was happily hunkered down. At one point, she did get a little water on the bird’s tail, and the bird got up and moved out of the way. That’s when Mary Jo glimpsed two tiny, startlingly white eggs in the nest. So our houseguest will soon be a mommy.

I’m sure we’ll be among the first to know when the little ones hatch. Hopefully doves prefer to emerge into the world after sunrise.

Apparently I have some latent parenting instincts, because I started wondering aloud whether we should get some dove food (whatever that might be) for both mommy and the kids when they arrive. But Mary Jo proclaimed her confidence in Mommy Dove’s ability to look after her own, and I have to agree with her.

Categorised as: Life the Universe and Everything

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