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Hi all,
About a month ago, I found a peaceful dove's nest
in my backyard, fairly conspicuous in a fork in a medium sized river gum.
These guys really get their nesting business over and done with, within one and
half weeks of the eggs hatching, the two chicks had left the nest. That was about two weeks ago and yesterday I observed one
juvenile (small body, shorter tail feathers and bigger eyes) feeding itself on
the ground, picking seeds and tid bits. This river gum is right beside our
clothes line and late this afternoon right on dusk as I was bringing in some
washing, the juvenile returned to its old nest, fluffed a few feathers and
settled down for the night. Is it known that juvenile doves return to the
nest after they've fledged to roost? The parents were no where to be seen
and I had a pair of peaceful doves (presumably the same ones) nest in exactly
the same spot last year (the same fork in the river gum)?
I've also got a pair of Black-faced Woodswallows
with young in a nest in the guttering of our house. God only knows how hot
they get in the direct sun as we've had about 36/37 degree days lately. A
similar Black-faced Woodswallow's nest has also been built in the guttering of
the local post office in Julia Creek. The parents of both nests are
extremely protective and dive bomb anything that comes close, carrying on like
some agressive magpies and butcherbirds do - no doubt as woodswallows are
obviously related.
Cheers
Marc Gardner
Julia Creek NW QLD
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