An Easter Treat - Doves!

Cadbury Cream Egg season cannot be spoiled in my house, not even with the latest m-i-l saga (adding new and surprising levels of crazy since 2005!). I am not going to go there right now, so I'll talk about the rest of our Easter weekend. We had a great couple days. I married a wonderful guy and I like him even more now then when I married him. Which is saying something, since I've always been quite fond of him.

The hubby was home all weekend, which was lovely. We managed to be less productive than we had wanted but still crossed some things off of the to-do list. I super cleaned 3 rooms, kept the washing machine and dryer busy, and ran around town. Tried to do all the things I'd been putting off, like picking up the hubby's dry cleaning, getting Mav's medicine refilled at the vet's office, and returning a couple pairs of shoes to DSW (online clearance: sometimes I hit it right and sometimes, well, wowza, no).

What didn't get gone wasn't major. We ordered Chinese food and watched television. Sometimes you need to have down time, and I think the hubby needed it more than most as of late. He's had such long hours and worked a lot of weekends. If he needs to look up soccer online for an entire morning, then that's what he needs to do. It's not like I don't sometimes get caught up by my favorite blog or Big Cat Rescue videos like this Easter one or Dear Prudence columns. Dear Prudence is always one way to make my life look and feel SO GREAT!

The hubby did mow the lawn Sunday, which makes for TWICE IN A ROW. Call the media! The number of times he's done yard work since we've been married may actually be creeping up into the higher single digits. You might need 2 hands soon to count! Hee hee!

Seriously, though, it was much appreciated and looks great. Perhaps he should not do such a good job. For a such a smart man, you would think he would have already come to that conclusion.

We also had free entertainment in the form of the family of doves living above one of our windowsills.

If I didn't take the dog out a hundred times a day, or have a line of kitties at that front window 24/7, I wouldn't get to see them every five seconds. We have had this dove nest for many years now, and it's churned out a lot of babies. One at a time.

At this point, they've nested there so often that when I go outside, I immediately look for them and then, ahem, talk to them. Loudly. Like a crazy person. I am sure the neighborhood is not aware that I am talking to birds. That's not weird or creepy at all, right?

I imagine anyone who can hear me, which is probably a larger number than I am willing to admit, thinks I am talking to my own house or something. Hi, House!

The doves do seem to have babies that are, um, special. That is why I haven't named them and just call them "Babies" and "Mama" and so on. We had one baby that came out of the nest around the right time and then walked all the way to the backyard and decided to live in the hedges behind the garage. Permanently. Under the dryer vent and where there is no food. It would then come up the stairs onto our deck and sit next to our back door on the mat. I mean, nestled against the back door. Our back door has lots of glass so it was basically in our kitchen. I remember cooking and running around in there and it was never phased. We couldn't use our back door and I had to walk the long way around the house so that I could feed it bird seed. That was last summer.

It was not the rocket scientists of birds. Since I've never found a dead dove, I like to pretend some smart genes kicked in at some point and it's living large somewhere fancy like the botanical gardens or the Cards baseball stadium.

Another baby just sort of hung out in our driveway for days after he left the nest. I thought it must have left too soon and that he couldn't fly. I mean, why else would it just just stay on the driveway for days and days? For what felt like forever. The hubby had to pull the car into the garage with airplane-landing-level help. We concocted a plan - okay, so I made a plan and then told him he was helping me. I thought I'd just put it back in its nest.

When we had painters come, there was a baby in the nest and we just set the nest on the ground, baby and all, painted the house, and then stuck the nest and it back up there at the end of each work day. Every person and dove was super fine with that. No issues at all. Parents still were as attentive as usual and the baby never tried to escape into the yard. So I thought maybe driveway dove had fallen and needed a little help back in the nest for a touch longer, and since our history showed that a little help from us wasn't earth-shattering...

Well, driveway dove just sat there as I walked up to it. I had the hubby for backup in case it wanted to run into the street or something. The hubby stood at the end of the driveway with his arms out as I just sort of followed it around the driveway. Little fella was not in a rush. It was like he and I were taking a walk where the bird just walked a foot in front of me at all times. Finally I was close enough to reach out and get him. He didn't seem scared of me at all. Then, like it was nothing, right before I could pick him up, the little sh*t flew away. My worry stemmed from the idea that the poor little thing couldn't fly. Nope. Just another Mensa member from this dove family.

The past couple weeks, I suspected there were two babies, which was sort of awesome but also sort of terrifying. If all the goods went into raising one baby all this time, and those sole babies turned out, well, you know... Now, split all those resources and parent-dove-time into two babies and uh-oh. Hopes were not high. I was pretty sure these guys would need little wing-elbow pads and possibly little bird helmets. I thought doubling up on the babies probably meant super, um, special baby doves? Part of me figured that after all these years and after all these one at a time babies, of course there was just one there. I'm just imaging there are 2!

Over the weekend, low and behold...

2 baby doves.

"Hi Babies! Those are good babies! Hi Babies!"

Oh Lord. Happy Easter. Sunday, the dove parents decided to take a break. You have to realize that there is always one parent at the actual nest and the other is usually in our yard or in a nearby tree. They do not stray far until it's time for the babies to leave the nest. All day Easter these two little/big babies just hung out above the window. I'm pretty sure they were like, "Hey, where did our parents go and when are they bringing us more food?"

Maybe that's just me. I like food. That would be my reaction if I were in their shoes. In their feathers. Special needs helmets. Whatever.

Finally, Sunday night, the parents came back. Acted like they'd never even left them. I guess they were hoping the little guys would take the hint. Nope. So each parent took turns on the nest again. Which was definitely not stretching to fit.

Mom or Pops is sitting on one baby (you can see the tail coming out on the left side of the photo) while the other baby sits in front of the parent facing in the same direction. Roomy. Most of the time, you can barely see the head of one of the parents sticking out of the nest. The babies had gotten so big that adding in an adult dove made it like the nest was just a podium. Now, nobody fits.

I am way too invested in them and worry about them although I know I have nothing to do with anything. Do I need therapy? Probably.

I kept bringing the hubby out to look at them all weekend. I'm all, "Come see the babies!" and he's all, "Um, okay." I know he did it because he loves me and I was excited about it, not because he was really that interested. Such a good husband.

I'm sure soon they'll be gone and the doves will be back to sitting on an egg. Until then, free cat tv through the window and lots of crazy lady talking to them from the front yard.