When we arrived in Brittany we found a young dove in the garden.
It seemed content, basking in the sun but not yet flying. It hopped around the garden for a couple of days, visited by its mother every so often. Tempting though it was to feed it, I decided not to, we're only here for a fortnight, and I felt it would be cruel to let it rely on us. We did put out some water.
By the third day it was fluttering it's wings and by the fourth it had flown from the garden!
We really enjoyed watching our little Cutie Pie, (
named by my daughter) and her mother Tweetie Pie. We were amazed at how tame and calm they were. Luckily, for Cutie Pie, the dog is elderly and he just looked at her, but was not interested in chasing (or worse)!
(Now I want a dovecote and to keep doves, but I can't see that as a possibility at present. It's one thing to bring a dog on the ferry, but doves? I don't think so.)
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| Cutie Pie sitting in the sun |
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| This seemed to be her favourite spot |
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| I don't have a fancy camera |
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With an amazing telescopic lens
we really could get this close
without her showing any concern |
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Tweetie Pie often joined her for an hour or two in the
midday sun |
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| They were so relaxed |
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| Only vaguely interested in us |
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| They were so happy in each other's company |
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| Basking in the sun |
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| And hopping off to follow Mum |
These remind me of 'Our' Percy Pigeon last year, we tried to keep him safe for about a week until he flew, he was visited by his birdy family too. We tried not to have him get too tame or dependent on us, but one evening in the dark I found him wondering down the garden path towards our back door, bless him. He knew we helped him. He did fly off in the end and four, like him regularly visit our garden. :)
ReplyDeleteI dont see why you couldnt have a doocot (Scottish way of saying it) in both your houses. They do look after their selves as you have just discovered. BUT you cant hang your washing out!
ReplyDeleteLucy, how lovely to hear another successful dove story. Aren't they amazingly tame for wild animals?
ReplyDeleteJill I love the Scottish way of saying Dovecote, I really must look into this as everything I've read so far implies that you have to regularly feed the semi tame white doves most people have in their dovecotes. A project for when I get back to Richmond!