I took this picture from 10 feet away, with the camera fully extended over my head- so from a height of about 6.5 feet) The mother Dove(see her giving me the "eye" in the piccy?) was hidden down inside the stag horn fern. Last week, we had knocked down the other nest after two broodings, since it was August, after all, plus the pair had lost three other nestlings on the night after they fledged. I was totally sick of doves at that point. So, we knocked the empty nest down, and by so doing, we forced her into this more hidden place.
This particular stag horn fern is well over my head, so when I watered it yesterday, I could see nothing. The female dove burst out of top of it and flew to the top of a nearby fence. I continued to arc water into the fern. Then I thought, "Dove in fern, why is that?"
What she had hidden, when I took the fern down off it's nail and looked, were two feathered nestlings which I had, by then, thoroughly wetted down! The only way I comfort myself over all of this is that doves provide a lot of food for endangered hawks.
She returned to the nest, as the picture shows, and will fledge out two more morsels, for what ever is catching and eating them, at the end of the week. I will keep an eye on this determined little female. How can they stand it? I can't even stand it, and I'm not the mother!
Aww, sweet! Great shot.
ReplyDeleteThat is, in fact, nature. As cruel as it often appears - I feel with you on this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, knittinreed, It was a lucky shot, too. I couldn't much see what I was doing.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, thanks for stopping by. :O) Oh yes, that sure is nature's way. Sometimes I forget that most baby things get eaten as survival of the fittest takes it's toll.