Compassion for a dove…

I haven’t posted much this year…actually I haven’t posted at all. 2015 has not started well for us in many respects, and we are facing many struggles, but, as I promised last year, I will write posts when I can.

Today’s is all about doves…

There is a pair of beautiful Spotted Turtle Doves who arrive at our house every spring. They build a flimsy stick nest on the top of our pergola and then share the incubation of the eggs for around two weeks.

Every year I will find eggs on the ground with dead chicks in them. We have been here for three springs and there have never been any live chicks born to the pair.

 I often go out and look at whomever is in the nest and they look back at me with those bright little eyes and I wonder if they know that I too have never brought a baby into this world. I often sit and shed a few tears for them and for me. I keep hoping, every time I see that they have returned, that this will be the year when they have little ones.

I’ve read somewhere that less than five percent of all birds make it to adulthood, and I know nature is harsh. Still, I feel for the pair. Do they grieve for their babies? Do they wonder why not them when they see other doves feeding their young?

I think they know I'm writing this as one of them is out cooing in the nest right at the moment. I think I will go and see them and hope that they know I love them and feel for them so very deeply.

The doves' nest...

Beautiful bird...