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About a month ago I discovered a makeshift nest with a Mourning Dove (Zenaida Macroura) and two eggs on top of the firewood pile that I keep under an old camper shell next to the Quonset hut. We have plenty of these doves around here, but they usually nest in the nearby trees, making their nests less accessible to the always hungry half-feral neighborhood cats, as well as my curious eyes and the camera. We also have lots of Rock Doves or Rock Pigeons (Columba Livia) - the common city pigeons - around here, but they always nest high up inside the Quonset.

Thus, this particular Morning Dove nest attracted my attention and I have been watching it rather closely. About two weeks ago the squabs hatched within a day or two of each other - they looked so tiny, so wet, so sickly and oh so helpless. Amazingly, they now look at least 3 times their birth size, fully feathered, quite healthy and almost ready to take flight. So, today, I got up close enough to take their picture (attached). I wanted to take a picture of their entire family, but their mother was not in the neighborhood, and their father was too scared to sit through the photo session.