Nest Abandonment?

For the last week or so the winds have been really strong here whipping those palm fronds around like giant fans! Note that we have high winds in the Central Valley of Costa Rica every January-February, so not unusual. It’s how our summer begins.

I’m sorry that the White-winged Dove had her egg-laying time come now and chose to make her nest in a palm frond, less secure from wind than any other tree limb would have been. The third photo below (and feature photo) is her on the nest the morning of the 29th after sitting there nearly a week and I have yet to see an egg. But by the afternoon of the 29th she was gone from the nest and not seen there since and I checked all day the 30th. If she lost eggs it must have been to predators (here Iguanas or a large bird or snake) because I’ve seen no egg on the ground under the nest which would be broken if it fell. The second empty nest photo was made from my step ladder (higher up) but still not showing any egg(s). So I don’t know what has happened. If she lost eggs, it will be the second time a dove has lost eggs from my palm fronds. Sad.

Dove Nest Appears Abandoned.
Continue reading “Nest Abandonment?”

Mama Dove Abandons Nest in Strong Winds

I don’t know for sure if the mother Inca Dove abandoned the nest or something happened to her, but by this morning she was gone and two eggs had rolled out of nest down the spine of the palm frond, with at least one egg cracked. An animal that would eat her would probably also eat the eggs and an iguana may eat the eggs yet.  61 mph winds could have done it!

Inca Dove on Nest
She sat on this for about 3 days in terribly fierce winds, palm fronds like sails!

Empty Nest this Morning
Was the wind too much? Did something happen to her? I never saw a mate
and wondered where Daddy bird was!

Eggs Rolled down Palm Frond & Cracked
I’m so sorry to miss the birth of two Inca Doves & Sorry for the Mom!
I have no way to save them and doubt they could be.

Poor Choice of Nest Tree
The nest is in this small palm surrounded by red/yellow crotons below my deck.
Nest in lower of two fronds on the left, tiny gray spot halfway up.

Check out our Weather and note that right now the wind is at 42 mph with gusts to 61 mph. The poor bird never had a chance! January-February is the usual windy time, but last year was never with as strong a wind as we’ve had this year. and it is still blowing strong into March, but hopefully dying down soon! Then a couple of months of windless, hot, dry days before the rain starts, May-Oct.

Read more about Inca Doves at Cornell’s All About Birds

My Birds Photo Gallery

POSTSCRIPT: Before dark I checked the palm again and both eggs were gone, maybe by wind or maybe by an animal.

PS again: Today I finished my Income Tax with only one call to the TurboTax help desk!  🙂  The problem was not with the form but getting past their security into my file online. It seems that I had two accounts with them with two different user names and passwords and I was mixing them up. Crazy! But done now!