Our sweet dove that has been diligently with her eggs all day and night for the past several weeks had a mother's worst night mare experience last night. We had a pretty bad rain storm last night. I woke up about 4:30 to lightening and heavy rain. It might of even hailed for a while.
This morning about 6am I went out to check on her and she was sitting on her nest but flew away real fast as I got near her. Note: She never flies away when we are even 8 inches from her. I noticed her nest was empty as she watched me from a distance while perched on our neighbors roof top. I looked down and there was one egg balancing on a skinny branch of dead pine needles below her nest. I knew she couldn't pick it back up herself and also knew that us humans should never touch an egg. But, I took that chance and picked it up and placed it back into the nest. While having it in my hand I noticed 2 tiny cracks with a dark spot almost as if rain water got inside it. I looked everywhere for the other egg and could not find any trace of it. All I can think of was that it fell hard on the rocks below and was washed away in the heavy down pour. I watched from the window inside the house to see if the mama bird would fly back over to the nest and she didn't. She fly away somewhere in the distance. A few hours later Kayla went out and she was there! The mama dove is back and sitting on the egg that she knew was in a dangerous situation just hours before. I could only imagine her night as she tried to protect those eggs. I am sure she couldn't handle the heavy pounding of the rain and the eggs were knocked out of the nest. I am so proud of her! I now wonder if the egg will really survive its traumatic experience of last night. Only time will tell but what a wonderful mama bird she it!
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