COLLARED DOVES' DISAPPOINTMENT

On Monday July 30th we noticed a Collared Dove sitting on a nest in a cherry tree close to the house, and in clear view of my favourite armchair. I consulted my birds CD and learnt that these doves normally make a flimsy nest high in a tree and lay two eggs, which hatch after fourteen days. At first all went well, and we were occasionally aware of a change of shifts. But sometime around the 10th to 12th day one of them (presumably the male) lost interest. His partner continued to sit for up twenty hours a day, with breaks of at least two hours morning and evening. She would not be there when I got up between 7.30am and 8am, but each day returned within a few minutes of 9.30am. On Monday, August 13th, the 15th day, she seemed to be agitated and pecking around in the nest. I guessed that an egg was hatching, but she settled down again, and I never saw any indication of a nestling being fed. On the Wednesday the male spent half an hour on the lawn below the tree but I did not recognise any communication between the partners. The female continued her routine. On Friday the male appeared again and the two of them were together on the lawn for a while. The female returned to the nest but after a while disappeared. She came back at about 4pm and sat quietly for a while, then got agitated and seemed to be walking round the nest rather than on it. She settled down again, but next time I looked she had gone, and did not return that day. Some time later the male (I could by now recognise him - his collar extended further forward on the sides of his neck than that of his partner) came and spent two or three minutes looking around the nest.

When I got up on Saturday, I was surprised to see the female again on the nest. She did not stay long, and I did not see her on the nest again, but both parents appeared at intervals during the day. At one stage the female spent an hour about a foot from the nest, and later I disturbed her sitting in the tree but several feet from the nest. On one of his visits the male appeared to be testing the branches and twigs around the nest, and I wondered if he was considering building another nest near the old one. Early Sunday morning one of them was calling loudly and persistently very close by; and later in the day I heard one of them further away. But they did not return to the tree or the garden that day. On the Tuesday one was around briefly, but seemed to have no interest in the cherry tree.

Richard Addington,
20 Riverview, Melton, WOODBRIDGE, IP12 0QU

Gary Lowe comments that the doves may have been an inexperienced pair, breeding for the first time, but there is a shortage of such background information (Ed).

Don't forget you can download the whole of each White Admiral as a .zip file.
(Typically under 700 kb)   ~ See the top menu.