Birth Announcment!

With great delight, I announce the births of Wolfgang and Jean Baptiste Chalumeau! This past Saturday, I was out early, having breakfast on my balcony, listening to some Mozart, when to my surprise, I saw one of my dove parents, Mr. Chalumeau in this case, feeding its tiny, tiny baby bird! I grabbed my binoculars and yes, here was a tiny black creature with grey fuzzy down, eating away at its "crop milk", as they call it, a pablum of sorts (a secretion from the crop of the parent reguritated to their young). I also ran to get my camera to document the "blessed event". I named this little life "Wolfgang", the first name that came into my head as I listened to the music in the background, a beautiful piano concerto by the master of the same name! If you look VERY closely at the photo above, you will see the large dove feeding the baby.

Then yesterday evening about 6:30pm, in passing the living room window, I noticed that the parent dove was NOT in the nest. I was concerned. I'm fast becoming a doting grandparent/godparent! Ha ha! I looked into the nest, and low and behold, there were TWO baby birds, sitting, or sleeping, extremely quietly (see above!). I was even afraid they may not be alive, but held a good thought. Then they moved slightly. Relief! I named the second bird "Jean Baptiste", a name offered to me by a friend, stating, "It should have a proper French name!"

Then I saw Mrs. Chalumeau, perched on a telephone wire near by, looking around, stretching, preening, before the night's long assignment. (The female tends the nest from evening to morning; the male, from morning to evening). She flew to the nest, settled in, with her new brood.

It's an amazing, yet temporal, treat, this look into nature's never-ending ritual! They will only stay awhile outside my window, and I try to catch as much as possible. Incubation of the eggs takes about two weeks. After birth, they are fed crop milk 3-4 days; then their diet supplemented with seeds. Fledging will take place in about 11-15 days. Then, these little ones will be "kicked-out" of the nest, and made to make their way.

I know I will be a bit sad when they are gone. I've been through my own personal "empty nest" scenario. Here we go again, and yet it is the way it must be! Cest la vie! Actually, there is a greater joy in seeing a young one soar on their own! So, meanwhile, I relish the time spent with The Chalumeau family.