Last Friday evening I visited with xocobra and LD.  As luck would have it, I didn’t have my camera with me.

Nevertheless, I did want to share a bit of interesting news.

Remember the mourning doves who had commandeered a hanging planter on their patio?  They nested in it, of course.  The news reports indicate a healthy brood of two young’uns started their lives on the patio, grew up under the watchful eyes and gentle tutelage of mother and father, and eventually joined the big world as independent birds.

But that didn’t mark the end of the hanging planter or its use as a nest.

While xocobra and I talked a bit early on in my visit, the conversation turned to their experience watching the parent birds rear their young right there outside the back door.  That’s when my dear friend told me to take a quick gander at the dangling plant container.

What do you know!  Another pair of mourning doves has moved in and made themselves at home.

We laughed about how the first pair had obviously mentioned as part of neighborhood gossip how they had discovered this protected place that offered a wonderful habitat for those in the family way.  So along comes the second shift.

This pair of avian creatures is a bit smaller than the first, perhaps younger birds starting their first try at parenthood.

As I stood and looked at the one sitting in the nest, I marveled at how magical it all seemed, how splendid and remarkable the odds were that another pair would find the same spot and take advantage of its protective environment.

Could there be a third set of parents in waiting?  As I explained to xocobra, that seems terribly unlikely considering how late in the season it will be when this second brood finally leaves the nest area.  That’s not to say it couldn’t happen; it’s just highly improbable.

So I’m excited that there will be another set of offspring for yet another pair of mourning doves.  They’ll enjoy the same security as the first parents did, and they’ll nurture their children and use the cover of the patio to ensure a future generation’s well-being.

I hope to get some photos in the near future.  I especially am reminding myself constantly to keep the camera with me and to plan accordingly so as to offer some images of the little ones when they finally start making appearances.

I can only promise to do my best in that regard.