Peaceful Dove Babies just born

Peaceful Doves (Geopelia placida)

Two very sweet little Peaceful Doves have just hatched in the Aussie peg basket that they call home. My early stroll around our garden with a cup of tea in hand, a peak in the peg basket and there they were, two beautiful little just born baby Peaceful Doves. Yesterday Mum was all fluffed up so we thought the birth was imminent. The next couple of days will be critical to their survival. Mum, who we have named Margaret, Peggy for short, (do you get it?) had flown off probably to get breakfast organised for her two new babies so I could have a good look and take a photo without doing any harm. She will be feeding heavily now on small seeds and water so that she can produce the "crop milk" in her crop glands to feed her babies. Thankfully, I could see that they were breathing ok, and that their little eyes were open. The glorious thing about them being in the peg basket on the Hills Hoist washing line is that we can observe what is happening, and Margaret has become very used to us unless I forget and bounce up to the washing line to hang out washing very close to her, then she has taken fright and flown off but always returns very quickly. Dear friends that has only happened a couple of times. At the moment, in  respect for the miracle that has occurred I am hanging out my washing on the lines in the garage, which I started doing because of the rain, however I will continue to do it now for a couple of days.

This was Mum sitting on her eggs

 We have had 4 or 5 families of birds nesting in our Paperbark tree this summer, however it was difficult to observe exactly what is happening. We watched with delight as the baby Peewees flew through our garage and rested on the roof racks of our car with Mum screeching at them to return home. However, having a family of birds in such close proximity to our house has been exciting.

When we take an early walk around our neighbourhood it is interesting to see just how many families of birds, such as magpies, butcher birds and peewees there are with the young on the ground waiting to be fed by their parents. Are you noticing this in your suburb as well at this time of year. Having all of this activity in our garden, such as the birds, the European bees feeding on the basil, the native bees feeding on the Wandering Jew plant, and the bumble bees feeding on the eggplant flowers, means that our garden has become quite organic and self sustaining and all of the resulting healthy herbal produce supports my activities in the kitchen. It is so nice  to have the time to observe all of this happening, thanks to the simple style of living that we are enjoying in retirement.

Go straight to the precious story about Mum sitting on her eggs here