Welcome.
The pages that follow detail the story of a pair of Mourning Doves that nested on my balcony last year. For a while, I managed to do frequent updates, but it really was too time-consuming to continue. So the story stops after the eggs had hatched and the young birds had fledged. Over the course of the summer, there were four broods hatched and a total of seven fledglings, the last one having hatched in late August. After Labor Day, I didn't see them any more.
Now it's January 2001, and sure enough, they're returned to the very same spot and started building a new nest. So, I've put the camera back up, and you can keep an eye on them. If last year's pattern repeats, you'll see them sit on the eggs for about two weeks, then they'll hatch, and the little ones will grow up for about 2-3 weeks. Then the cycle starts all over. Meanwhile, I've left last year's pages below so you can see what it's all about. The easiest thing is to just follow the "continue" links at the bottom of each page. Enjoy.
Update 2/23/2001: The first egg of the new year hatched around 5:15 a.m. today. And the other one hatched about an hour later.
It turns out that all sorts of creatures find my balcony a nice place to live. The first strange visitor was this rooster. I looked out one morning, and he was just strutting around the sidewalk, pecking at things. Bad exposure, but you get the idea.
During the winter, this fellow was a frequent guest. He'd just sit out on the branch, from dawn till dusk. Some helpful folks wrote and told me that it's a Night Heron.
I get a few hummingbirds. It's difficult to stop the action, since they move around so fast.
Then, one evening, I came home and saw this. Hey, who sat on my begonias? Oh, I see. A pair of Mourning Doves have made their nest here. Here's the mother. Here's the proud couple on their honeymoon. Here they are building the nest.
So,
I said what the heck, I just gotta put a live camera on the nest.
Click here and the camera page will open in a 640x480 remote
window. They're fairly big images, about 50K, and they refresh every 30
seconds, so you modem users may have some trouble.
By the way, there's a single shaded 15-watt light on the balcony, and when it's on, the camera makes it look like I have floodlights pointed at the poor suckers. I don't. It's just that the 3Com camera that I'm using is amazing in low light.
The first egg turned up on 4/4/2000, and they seemed to get serious about nesting on 4/8. Today, 4/10, I noticed that there's a second egg. I guess the eggs will hatch in a couple of weeks.
Apparently this isn't uncommon. I came across this page, where some folks chronicle a similar experience with the same species.
Stay tuned.
Update 4/11: Here's a photo of the camera setup. Click on the small
image, and a bigger one will appear.
Whoa... check it out. There are now three eggs!
