The Tale of Two Tails

  Late this afternoon, I took a hike down to the pier and then around the shoreline to where the Bayou meets the creek.  Not much was happening except for the fact that I was being steadily attacked by deer flies.  Those things are brutal!  The more I swatted, the more they came. I rounded the clump of gallberry bushes only to come face to face with a mourning dove.  The bird was on a limb just about eye level with me. Evidently startled, the bird flew off the limb to the ground about ten feet from me.  There, she started the familiar "I'm hurt!" routine that was a sure sign that her nest was nearby.  While she flip-flopped around the hillside, I looked for her nest.  With all of her coaxing, I knew that her little ones were not hatchlings.  She would have never left the nest if they were tiny. They had to be juveniles that were about ready to leave the nest. Her babies had grown to the point where they filled the nest which accounted for her being on the nearby limb.  

  Sure enough, after a few moments, my eyes adjusted to the dimly lit brush and I spied the two little birds.  Wow!  They were nigh on as big as Mama!  I could clearly make out two tails sticking up out of the nest.  I eased back as to not frighten the little squirts but then Mama Dove made a beeline flight back into the bush.  Her actions startled the little ones and both tumbled out of the nest and onto the ground.  Oh, my...now what?  Putting the little ones back into the nest can be safely done for the birds but I would have been scratched to pieces by a smilax vine that twined in among the limbs.  I watched the little ones and soon realized that these two should be old enough to fly.

  Sure enough, Mama Dove flew to the mimosa tree and both little ones took off in perfect form.  Their flight to the mimosa tree may not have been their first attempt by the looks of it!  Mama Dove seemed proud of her little ones and had gotten over her fear of me. The trio did not budge from the mimosa tree even though I was just a few feet from their perch. All of her theatrics were in vain.  There is no way I would have ever harmed her little ones!

  A bit later, I saw the trio fly back into the gallberry bushes and the two settled back into the poorly formed nest.  There they will spend the night protected by the smilax thorns and sheltered by the thick canopy of gallberry leaves. Mama took her perch on the limb several feet from her nest....just in case another monster entered the scene.  If so, she would, once again, start her "break dancing" routine.  Geez!  What mamas do for their little ones!