May 10th, 2006
simplicity
At the end of April, I posted a photo of a pair of Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) that inhabit the gardens here at the farm. For a couple of weeks, I repeatedly saw them moving from tree to tree, always staying together. They’ve been a little less conspicuous for the past week, so I concluded that they must have built a nest and were sitting on eggs some place close by.
Monday, while walking along one of the trails just beyond the garden, I happened upon their nest. I can’t claim to have “found” it, because I would have walked right on by. No, the nest found me — or more correctly, I was made aware of it as one of the doves came rocketing out of the branches next to me, almost knocking off my hat as it flew off through the trees. I think we mutually scared the heck out of each other. I looked to where the dove had emerged, and sure enough, there was the nest in plain view, resting atop two spruce tree branches at about my shoulder height in a small tree right next to the trail. I shot a quick photo and moved along to let the doves get back to their business.
Looking at the photo later, I was taken by the simplicity of the nest – there’s something distinctly ascetic about its design. It’s a minimalist creation. A couple of handfuls of carefully chosen materials — what look to be the straight, dried stalks of some plant — cleverly arranged upon two supporting spruce branches in such as way that it forms a gently concave platform. Two perfect white eggs resting at the center of a shallow bowl. A small but elegant composition. Simplicity.
Tags: Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura, nest
May 10th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Mourning doves are known for their minimalist nests. Often they are no more than a platform of sticks that you can see through from below. Always a pleasure to see a nest.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
that eggs pic is something
what dreamy things.
seems like they are gemstones,
from a dream, revelatory gemstones,
with amazing powers,
but they are even better than that
May 10th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
What a lovely and simple nest. Quite beautiful, really. We’ve been replacing the siding on our house, and there is a juniper tree at one of the corners. Of course, a pair of house finches have built their nest in it. So, our presence has really caused them some alarm. We take breaks so they can get in there to sit or feed the nestlings. We’re not sure the status, and we don’t want to peek in and scare them even more. We’re going to put off shingling that side of the house until the babies have fledged.
May 11th, 2006 at 2:43 am
pablo – this is the first time i’ve actually seen a Mourning Dove’s nest. Such interesting construction.
Tussock Mirth — you see the nest and eggs as I do. There is something so minimalist about them, and yet something much more as well. Thank you for seeing that.
RA – Last year, a Robin built its nest inside of an arbor in our vegetable garden. She used to get so angry at us when we were working in the garden. She would shriek and swoop down at our heads and dive at our poor collie’s head when she tried to lie on the grass near us while we were weeding. We were all quite relieved when her offspring fledged and flew the nest. Fortunately, she didn’t build the nest in the same spot this year. However, she may be back and have a nest somewhere nearby as we do have a Robin that is taking fits and chirping at us whenever we walk to the garden.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:21 am
Several species of doves and pigeons in Australia make very flimsy nests too. We have had Crested Pigeons nesting in our garden. They seem to be content with a very airy nest and it always amazes me that the eggs or the chicks don’t actually fall through to the ground.
Our Common Bronzewing Pigeon is another that bursts from the nest at the very last moment, scaring both itself and the observer. I have actually been able to look up at a nest from directly underneath and count how many eggs are in the nest.
Now that’s simply minimilist in the extreme.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Interesting nest! I’ve not seen a dove nest with eggs. On the other hand, I posted a field sparrow nest on my blog yesterday. Nests are always neat to find.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Trevor – Thanks very much for the notes about dove and pigeon nests in Australia. I was thinking the same thing about the dove nest — that it’s amazing that the young birds would not step off the edge and fall to the ground as there’s not a lot that would keep them secure.
O.W. – Yes, it is always neat to see a nest and put the species of bird together with its creation. Some nests are so beautifully made — In particularl, I’m thinking of the vireo nests I’ve seen.
May 13th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Hey Bev. I flushed two mourning doves off nests on the ground within my research plots this past week. Same minimalist construction – actually these two were even more minimalist since the ground is a pretty sturdy platform. I spooked the brooding bird and looked down to find 2 bright white eggs in a little slightly concave next of grasses between rows of rye.
May 14th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Hi TroutGrrrl. Interesting about the nests on the ground. I’ll have to watch for doves flying up from ground level. We seem to have quite a few around our farm this spring – perhaps more than usual.