They did it!

While I have been fixated on the dove family I haven't been ignoring what's happening above and behind me. Ovenbird is working the center bush area. Bugs.  The B/W warbler is in the neighboring tree.  Last evening I saw a cluster of magnolia warblers, more B/W and redstarts high up in neighboring trees.

In the morning doves were in nest. I'd been calculating a fledge pretty soon, maybe the first hatched and then the second hatched the next day. Feeling secure with that observation I went off to do an errand.

Back from errand.  EMPTY NEST. FLEDGE FOR BOTH!

Both kids safely on the ground in the area below the nest.

Wait a minute! Who's that????  An intruder. A slightly older juvenile.

I knew doves do this, become a kindergarten. God only knows where this juvenile came from, obviously another nest. They were all doing the same routine- preening, napping, exploring, poking around the ground. No interaction. No squabbling. They instinctively know how to poke around the ground for seeds.

Oh God, don't go in rat bait box for food!  It didn't, just looked.

My big question was whether parents would return to feed babies now that they've fledged.  What happened next will appear in next posting.
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