We have a history of mourning doves in our backyard. A couple of years ago a couple of mourning doves made the lampshade in our backyard their home. We were glad to see them build their nest and tend their eggs. The mom and dad dove used to take turns in keeping the eggs warm. It was so beautiful to see. And one fine morning, the doves went missing, abandoning the eggs. There is no way to explaning the grief it caused us and husband/I were feeling guilty wondering if we chased them away without our knowledge.
Then this year, another couple(maybe the same), came and laid their eggs and tended their eggs and produced two beautiful offsprings. We were glad to see the babies learn to feed, walk and fly out of the nest one fine morning.
Morningdovenesting
Then a month back, another couple(maybe the same) made the nest their home. Maybe word has spread that our backyard is the moaning dove maternity ward. The babies were born 10 days back.
The little baby doves
This morning, they had flown down from their nest to our workbench and the babies were practicing walking and flying. They were alone all morning.
At around 2pm, I felt bad for them and made one of the mistakes of my life. Went to leave some grains near them. One of them(the elder one) got scared and flew away. It is around 4pm and it hasn’t returned 
. So I am in mourning.
DDMom said
Did the elder one come back? How is the younger one doing?
As they say, life goes on!
yaadayaada said
Actually the parents came back and asked the younger one also to move on. So babies have moved on. Hope they are safe whereever they are. Now the parents are going at it again to produce their next batch. I guess they have leased our backyard permanantly.
john graham said
I HAVE HAD NORNING DOVES NEST ALL SUMMER. GOING ON 4 BATCHES OF BABIES. BATCH 3 WILL NOT LEAVE MY YARD . MOM IS IN THE NEST WITH BATCH 4. I KEEP THINKING SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE 3RD BATCH , BUT THEY FLY OK . THEY SEEM TO RETURN TO THER FEDDING AREA . THEY LET ME COME ALLMOST CLOSE ENOUGH TO TOUCH