Wednesday, July 9, 2008

dove rescue

We needed to go somewhere last night so I took the dog for a quick walk before we left. When I returned to the yard, I knew we'd be late, as we had a new project - there was this very young mourning dove wandering around in our yard with no parents evident.
Since our neighborhood can be rife with cats looking for trouble, my wife grabbed a spare cage and some gloves, I flushed the little guy out of a bush, and we kept him in the cage indoors for the night, with a soft nest we had saved from some previous occupants in our yard, and some grain and seed and such. The guy appeared to be a fledgling, probably at least 2 weeks old - and could fly short distances yesterday.
Today we decided to see how far he could get on his own. Well, he flew up onto a railing on our deck (as in the picture below), and his next flight was to the peak of our garage roof. Then up into a high maple branch.
Needless to say, we have not retrieved him. He's on his own - and we do hear some cooing around the area, so maybe mom and dad are not too far away.

1 comment:

Jessica said...

Awww... Be safe little one!

You did a good thing. Now every time you see a Dove you're going to wonder if it's your baby.