Dove Cam

Welcome to DoveCam. The picture above shows the real-time activity in the Dove nest belonging to our two newest adopted family members. If you see something interesting going on, please click on the picture to ensure we get an snap in the archive.

2002 => the Doves arrived and started showing an interest before the end of January. Normally, they don't appear until May, so this is quite unique. By February, they had decided to build their nest and started working at the breakneck speed of about 1 hour a day. They made it in time though and on February 17, the eggs appeared. I have read that it takes about 2 weeks for Mourning dove eggs to hatch, so baring any problems, we should have had baby birds in the begining of March. By March 10 we still had eggs and the Mother Dove finally gave up and abandoned the nest (after all she had waited a full extra week). Oh well, maybe next time. I have tried to capture the significant events in the archive for those interesting in getting caught up.

Background

The Dove family (Mr. and Mrs.) first joined us 4/15/2000 and immediately set about building their little addition. Unfortunately, the location they had chosen - while up under the eves, was actually in the pool's leaf rake. We like doves and did not want to scare them away, but could not allow them to live in the pool equipment, so I waited until they were both out doing "Dove stuff" and removed the nest (simply setting it on the ground so it would look like it fell down on its own). I was hoping that the doves would decide that this was not a very stable location and pick another without leaving all together.

Well, a week later, not only had the doves recovered from the loss of their first attempt at a nest, but they had rebuilt in the very same location using the very same twigs. Not to be outsmarted by a couple of Doves, I waited for them to vacate the nest and repeated the removal activity - This time removing the Pool stuff, so they would have to move.

Luckily, they caught on and relocated about 6 inches over. One week later, they had completed their new nest on the top of our Patio awning and under the eves. This new location should be protected from any rain as well. All in all, a much better location.

This new location also made it possible for me to install a remote video camera for us to monitor their progress over the ensuing season. While doing so, I noticed that there were already two eggs in the nest (no wonder they were in such a hurry). It appears they just barely finished the nest in time.

Well, to make a long story short, something happened and we found egg shells on the ground. A year later (2001), the doves were back and the camera went back up. This time, we started trying to save stills of significant events. Again disaster struck (see theHistory page for details).