mourning doves are back

After almost three years, the doves have again built a nest in the Japanese lilac. (Wonder if it’s the same mating pair?) The hiatus was caused by an ambitious raccoon that had traveled up from the park, crawled up the tree, discovered the nest and ate the eggs. But the murderer has been absent these last years and his crime forgotten by the cooing pair.

I can’t tell if there are any eggs or squabs in the mess that is the nest. Doves are terrible nest-builders. It’s more a bunch of twigs and sticks at the fork of trunk and branch. It’s such a haphazard collection, with no mud and in constant need of new twigs and sticks. (The bricks under the tree are littered with sticks and grasses that have fallen from the badly built nest.) Over the weekend, when no bird is roosting, I’ll check for eggs or squabs. (One squab has already fallen out and Gurl almost made a meal of the dead baby.)