Today James and I decided to clean up our back patio area a bit and discovered quite a surprise — there is a bird hanging out on top of a shelf on the patio, on the top of our cat Koxinga’s cat carrier. The bird was startled by our presence and flew away, though not too far away as she sat on the wall nervously looking at us. We discovered why: on top of the cat carrier is a bird nest with two eggs in it.
momma bird working on hatching her babies
I was happily surprised by this discovery and commented that apparently I am not the only one trying to hatch a baby in this household. James and I decide that this is a good omen and decided to leave the bird’s nest where we found it. Momma bird then returned to the nest to sit on her eggs. The cats are not quite as calmly happy about this discovery and are very vocal about this.
After looking things up, we identified the bird as a mourning dove. James and I have seen the daddy bird around during their courtship, taunting our kittens with their noisy frolicking. Even though we have not seen him as of late, we know he’s around. The mourning doves are monogamous, have strong pair bonds, and co-parents!