
If you are a collared dove, apparently September is nesting season. The collared doves in our garden always seem to spend most of the year working out how to build a nest and then finally work it out about 5 months after every other species, and 2021 was no exception. If you are a collared dove, it is apparently perfectly reasonable to expect a few sticks balanced in a tree to support an egg. We notice these hair-brained attempts at home-building when sticks start appearing on the patio in the same spot under a tree for a few days in a row. I suppose if you look at the size of the bird’s head, the brain to body size ratio can’t be large. After 3 or 4 failed attempts at nest making, we managed to take the above photo at the start of the month in a rather wobbly rose arch.
I am now 5 months into semi-retirement and September saw the start of my first consecutive 4 non-working week period. When I renegotiated my contract at work, one of the stipulations was that I was able to take 4 consecutive non-working weeks at least once per year.
Continue reading