twins!

Found myself awake early this morning. Out the window, the sky is getting lighter, and I hear this sound. For the third year in a row, a pair of mourning doves have been nesting beside my air conditioner, outside my bedroom window. They've been poking around out there for 2 months, but the past week or two it seemed like one of them was always there in the nest, and I knew from past experience they're ready to lay an egg. Unlike past years, I've disciplined myself not to keep peering thru the manilla envelope I have set up blocking the view thru the window beside the air conditioner. But after hearing all this chirping yesterday, I had to look, and caught a brief glimpse of one of the parents feeding a chick.

So this morning, I quickly realized what had awoken me, stood up on my bed to peer thru the tiny opening and could see bits of a wing moving, and a parent bird pointing it's beak downwards towards a pile of feathers. Feeding time. I got back down, pulled up the covers, as the sun began to appear from behind some clouds. Smiling, I fell back asleep.

As you can see from this pic, I couldn't help myself later, and just had to pull the barrier away long enough to take a pic or two. I was shocked and delighted to see an actual pair of chicks, and the 3 faces facing me nervously, as I quickly snapped a couple and moved the barrier back in place. Blurry, I know, but certainly cute.