Morning Doves

Birds are always welcome at the farm.  We do not grow fruit or berries (one of a birds favorite food) so we have made our little farm a haven for our fine feathered friends.  The morning doves are one of my favorite.
As I tend to the gardens early in the morning they accompany me, softly cooing as they gather weed seeds, and then flying up high to sit in a tree or on a power line to digest the bounty.  Plenty of weed seeds on this little farm.

Morning doves mate for life.  Two eggs are laid in a nest built of loosely in twined sticks, pine needles, weed stems, and grasses.  The male sits on the eggs during the day, the female sits through the night.  In about 15 days the eggs will hatch and both parents take responsibility feeding the young.  In 2 weeks time the little ones will fledge from the nest and new eggs will be lain.  Several broods will be raised during the summer.

 I perched this little one on my knee and took his picture.  He was just a bit to adventuresome and left the nest before he should have, I gently placed him back in the nest and explained to him the perils of leaving home before you know how to fly.

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Several broods were raised during the summer on the roof of the sun room.  I could watch their progress daily through the plastic sheeting.  Hope these little ones will come back year after year to raise a family of their own.