Mourning Dove Real Estate

A few weeks ago I bought myself a few hanging pots full of flowers.

The other evening, I went out to water one of the hanging pots on my porch. Before reaching up and dumping water into it I remembered how for two years in a row, or maybe more, a mourning dove made herself at home in my flowers, delighting in the shade and exceptional perch it provided, giving her a clear view of the intersection so she could tsk tsk! people running through the STOP sign at the neighborhood intersection. As one should.

I unhooked the plant and brought it down to my eye level and sure enough, there was the beginnings of a nest in there.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to water these beautiful flowers soon, since it would water log her nest. So I went to the basement and retrieved an old hanging pot with soil in it. I made a little wreath out for ferns for her, and carefully removed her not-yet-complete nest from the flowering pot to the soil-with-the-fern-leaf pot. I hung it up and watered my flowering pot.

The next morning I thought to myself that I should put some wooden skewers into my flowering pot to encourage her to move in to the next abode over. I grabbed some skewers and brought the pot back down again. She had already started rebuilding in my hanging flower pot! Harrumph.

Again, I carefully removed her not-completed second nest over into the pot condo next door, and stuck the dowels into the flowering pot.

In the evening I came home from work to find THAT BIRD NESTING WITH THE SKEWERS!

Accepting my defeat, I shooed her out of the nest so I could remove the skewers.

Later that evening I took this photo of her romantically luxuriating in her fancy high rise with mood lighting before taking myself to my couch and googling “how do I water a flower pot with a nest in it?” Then getting online to buy gadgets on Amazon that will make it possible for me to try and keep my flowers alive while not hurting her or her brood.

They arrived today…

Stay tuned.