Case in point: Last week, while we were visiting, she declared that a tree on her property needed to be removed. At my age, I know better than to argue, and besides, she didn't say when it needed to be removed. A few minutes later, her tree-removing pals "Oma" and "Opa" (good friends, really!!) swung by with a chainsaw, rope and a Jeep. OK. They are here to remove the tree (a cedar) now.
My brain reeled. It's spring...I know there is a good reason not to remove trees in spring, but what...oh, goodness, they are already here and ready to start. Too late.
A few minutes later, as the first branch fell, a dove came flying out of the old cedar. Libby saw it and looked to the ground; sure enough, there was the dove's loosely formed grass nest, with two little white eggs, one cracked, one perfect, sitting on the lawn beside it. Yeah. That's why you don't remove trees in the spring. I gave my mother the look. She winced. WE left the nest in a nearby bush, pretty sure that the dove would not be back, and that the raccoons would have a (very) small treat.
On the bright side, in order to take down the main trunk in a way that would avoid the houses on either side, I got to pull the tree with Oma's Jeep. It was actually kind of fun, driving the Jeep into oncoming traffic with a rope tied to the better part of a 40 foot tree as it came crashing down behind me. "Drive!" yelled Opa, as the tree slowly leaned towards the back of the jeep. My mother stepped out into the street to entreat the traffic to slow...but to no avail. The tree narrowly missed the Jeep. The Jeep narrowly missed the truck. The truck narrowly missed my mom. Fun!
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Back at home, we were delighted to find that a dove was nesting in our dogwood. Again, the loose gathering of grass and light twigs gave away the occupant's identity, and we saw the bird sitting on the nest shortly thereafter. The nest is right outside the window, so we can watch it, and see any hatchlings as soon as they pop their little heads up looking for food.
The dove is a lovely addition to our yard.
Last year, T, unfortunately, has a nest of mockingbirds right outside his window. Anyone familiar with this noisy bird know that they sing in the middle of the night, and the babies "peep" sharply at dawn. Still, it's always a treat to see nestlings develop and fledge.
2 comments:
You forgot to mention it was "Earth Day" we when cut it down.
We had Mockingbirds outside our house somewhere last year... it just about drove us nutty with it's Midnight singing! It woke ME (the soundest sleeper) up it was so bad ;)
Not to mention that they like to dive bomb people to protect the nest :D
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