Almost Wordless Wednesday: Fledgling Takes Refuge In The Tomatoes…

43 comments.

A while ago I mentioned that some Collared Doves were attempting to nest behind our old satellite dish. The eventually managed to stabilise the construction enough to lay eggs, and although the first brood all died, the second has produced at least one fledgling. Unfortunately the very windy conditions yesteday meant it was unable to return to its (very stupidly sited) nest. It spent a couple of hours sitting on a garden chair, looking cold. It then tried to guilt us into letting it in:

Let Me In

Being cold-hearted sorts, we didn’t succumb to its slightly scruffy charm, so it started looking around for an alternative.

Where Can I Go

It finally settled in to the pot of cherry tomatoes on the step just outside.

This Will Do

We’re hoping that the lack of feathers etc. on the ground means that it eventually made it back to the nest – the angle makes it impossible to check.

43 Comments


  1. Sparrows nest in our eaves. This has been one of the few years when a fledgling hasn’t fallen out of the nest and into our bathroom.


    1. Into the bathroom?! Sounds rather acrobatic, and a little disconcerting if it happened when soaking in the tub…


  2. How could you be so hard-hearted poor little thing, I bet it would have enjoyed a cup of tea and a slice of cake by a nice roaring fire.


    1. Sorry Elaine…


  3. What a sweet looking bird, I like the slightly haphazard baby feathers still poking out.


    1. Makes it look a little scruffy but appealing, I agree!


  4. I hope it’s mum managed to find it.


    1. Still no signs of feathers, so either that cat that got it was very neat, or it made it back. Will be keeping an eye-out.


    2. Of course what I meant to say was that Mum – or possible Dad – did find it, flapped around a little, and then just flew back to the nest… Tough love?!


  5. I have been known to rescue birds from the daft places the young ones end up in the garden And with two resident cats roaming about! We did loose one of the young wrens this year. It was found on the deck with hardly a mark on it and not a cat in sight. I did feel guilty though.


    1. What did you do with the fledglings you rescued? That is one of the things we were hotly debating, and didn’t come to any conculsions. Was about to do some online research when we realised bird was no longer roosting in the tomatoes.


      1. Usually I shut the cats in and leave well alone. We had a young crow hopping about the garden last year. And I “rescued” him/her. Well I launched him over the back fence into the church grounds. What I didn’t realize until I did some research is that the adults are looking after him/her until he’s able. They got very noisy and upset when I picked the bird up. Anyone him/her was soon back hopping about our veg garden. So unless they’re injured I don’t touch them!


  6. Aw, he looks so sad looking in the window. I do hope he found his nest safely. We also have cats, so I try to rescue fallen fledglings as soon as possible, not always successfully.


    1. Hi Rose, me too, we get a lot of cats in the garden but I think most of them were huddled indoors out of the foul weather, which gave our fledgling a chance.


    1. Cute but a tad inept I think! Mum (or possible Dad) did fly down and take a look, but just left again, possibly thinking, well, you’ve left home now, not my problem…


  8. I just love doves in general. My doves like to show up at my feeders mid afternoon following the bird traffic of the am. There’s usually four each pm Special gift.
    Best,
    Patrick


    1. Hi Patrick, they are certainly entertaining birds, if a tad inept when it comes to choosing good nest sites.


  9. Fledglings usually don’t make it back to the nest, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a secure perch a little higher. When I watched the fledglings here this year it was remarkable to see how quickly they become adept at flying. 24 hrs makes an enormous difference. The landings are little awkward for a few days though ;) Good luck little one!


    1. I wondered – hope it is safe, but secretly glad it is not setting up home in my tomatoes!


  10. Does it make me a bad human being that I was trying to identify random plants and ogling your tomatoes during reading?

    Daft birdie!


    1. Nope, just a gardener! Plants were a tumbling tomato (red) and the base of a Dahlia ‘Bishop of Auckland’ supported by hazel sticks.


  11. Hope mom came to the rescue and not a hungry cat.


    1. Me to Donna!


  12. You and all the commenters above are very kind but collared doves for us are as bad as pigeons! Last year we allowed a nest in the umbrella pine, and then were pestered by the very insistent birds for ages afterwards – all ours seemed to fledge. This year we were much more hard-hearted and knocked the nest down as soon as it was finished. A later attempt was scuttled by a cat climbing the tree and taking either the eggs or chicks – not sure which. Christina PS is it really so cold already?


    1. They don’t seem to do any damage in our garden, and are fun to watch, as they fly with an almost complete lack of style! Its not really cold, though dropped to 4C over night in Leeds the other day, but it is grey and miserable, and definitely long sleeves and a jacket outside. I probably wouldn’t moan about it so much if we had had a decent summer, but as it is the evenings are drawing in and I feel cheated!


  13. I hope it made it back to the nest safely indeed. Evening predators are normally good at leaving feathery clues at least, so the lack of it as you’ve said is a good sign :)


    1. That’s our hope… Daft bird picked a really bad day to learn to fly! Or perhaps it thought itself an expert and then met the wind.


  14. Oh Janet how could you resist that pleading little face? Hope it made it back home and that your tomatoes were unscathed. Keep us posted.


    1. I’m very heard hearted – and scared of doing the wrong thing with birds, I worried that if I invited it in for tea and cake the parents might reject it, and I can’t afford the therapy bills that would ensue…


  15. They are remarkably dim when it comes to choosing a nesting site. My brother once had a pair nest on top of a garden arch – opposite the cat flap!


    1. One wonders that they survive at all, they are so daft!


    1. I’ll be washing those tomatoes very thoroughly though…


  17. Elaine’s comment had me chuckling. Yes, a cup of tea would have been a kind, humane way to treat the little guy. :)


    1. I’m obviously just not a very nice person!


  18. No I don’t think they are a nuisance like the guttersnipes, (shame) or the bulldozing wood pigeons, in fact I like them. I hope he managed to get home, where hopefully in time he may grow up to be as good looking as mum or dad, for in the meantime, well!


    1. In the mean time, hopefully Mum and Dad still love him!


  19. We don’t have collared doves here, but do have mourning doves. They’re not the Einsteins of the bird world and can pick some spectacularly awful nesting site here as well. More than once I’ve seen them shacked up in hanging planters, for instance, with their nests getting sprayed every time you have to water the plants.


    1. Hanging planters?! One wonders how doves have survived to become so common, on both sides of the pond. Do mourning doves sound mournful?


      1. Absolutely. You want to put antidepressants in their birdseed!


  20. Poor little thing, it was a hard but understandable decision for you.


    1. I was happy to see that we followed the RSPB advice – apparently new fledglings spend one to two days on or very close to the ground as their feathers firm up. The behaviour we observed – a parent flying down, taking a look, then returning to the nest – is totally normal. Removing a bird from the wild drastically reduces its chances of survival, so the most we should do with fledglings is move them to a slightly higher safer location if they are in immediate danger.

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