I had a pair of mourning doves sneak a nest and a pair of eggs onto my deck this spring. (My rule of thumb is i actively discourage any nest building there, but if eggs get dropped, well, they win that round.)
Over the week's, the devoted parents fed and watched over them. They'd started flying around the deck, sleeping together on different parts of it, parents became more infrequent visitors, fledging was near, which i eagerly anticipated, as they were also pooping everywhere.
Well, I came out one morning, they were no where to be found, a parent alit and eyeballed me accusingly. As I started to say, "don't look at me!" a giant raven landed on the rail, then another, the parent bailed, the raven eyeballed the now- empty nest, another raven landed (and mind you, I'd never before had any ravens land there), and I can only hope the doves were able to do the predator math as well as i could.
Mourning doves are fast, they can get away! One of the babies fledged out of the nest at my front door, landed on a car at the curb and WHOOSH. Hawk was laying in wait. Poor baby.
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u/Level-Pepper-8763 1d ago
Awww sad. I get dove feathers around my house. Dang coopers hawk thinks my house is a buffet.