A Little Bird Story II

Indignant (and with all reason to be) Mrs Dove

I came home from grocery shopping the other week, I plonked my shopping basket on the kitchen table and MG shouted from the terrace "be careful of the eggs" I looked at the kitchen table and saw two perfect, off white, smooth, opaque and still warm perfect little eggs, Dove eggs to be precise, only narrowly missed from being splattered by my shopping basket.

 Spring is well and truly here in the Pyrenees and our resident Ring Collared Doves have been busy.  That is until MG wielded his chainsaw and lopped a few branches off a giant Bay tree, a squawking, very cross Dove flew out and a nest dropped into MG's hands with the two eggs inside. We tried to save the eggs, I made a new nest, out of a cardboard box, packing material and cotton wool, placed them on a bookshelf and directed the office desk lamp onto them... to no avail I am afraid.

  After this our Doves have once again been very busy flying about with twigs, they have now made a new nest, that just happens to be in the Neflier tree, which shades the terrace and is overlooked by our balcony, (I think they have figured, those stupid humans ain't going to be messing with this tree) they have laid new eggs and are now in the process of incubating them, they even let me peer into the tree and let me photograph the process, under the circumstances I think they have been very forgiving, I will keep you posted of all new developments...

To see past sagas of the Doves that live in our garden go here

A Little Bird Story

I know spring is definitely on it's way now, as this morning, for the first time I heard the beautiful sound of doves cooing in the garden.

 In spring, a couple of years ago we had several pairs of nesting doves in our garden, one day when we were about to take Crusoe for a walk, we discovered a little dove chick, floundering on the ground in the courtyard.  We quickly picked him up, before Crusoe could discover him and snaffle him between his eager jaws.

 MG carefully brought him inside and we found a little cardboard box and lined it with kitchen roll, I then rushed upstairs to the office, got on the computer and googled baby bird care.  After gleaning some new found knowledge on baby birds, we then put some drops of water, via a pipette on his beak, which he licked thirstily.

According to the information I had read, doves are terrible nest builders, so our little chick, had probably fallen out of the family home, however doves are very good parents, and if you put the chick somewhere outside, the parents will locate them and continue to feed and care for them until they fledge.

So we taped the new chick home into a tree, and watched and waited anxiously. At first nothing happened, little chick was making strange squawking noises, rearing out of his new home and attempted to flap his fragile wings.

 

Eureka, a few hours later the parents managed to locate him, and for the next few days we watched the parents frequent coming's and going's, always with tasty morsels for their errant chick.

One morning, he had vanished, he had obviously flown the nest, but on closer inspection we found he had not gone far, he was hanging out in the Gazebo, where his parents were still able to feed him.

 

He stayed in the Gazebo for a few days, growing big and strong, we visited every day, and he even let us stroke his tiny head, then one day, just like that he had gone.

I would like to think that the dove I heard this morning was our chick, returning with his mate, ready to nest and rear his own young in our garden.

An Unexpected Day Out

Yesterday, it was MG's birthday, I was downstairs making cups of tea when he called out, "Get ready, we are going to Pau, for lunch".  I was amazed, as MG started his own business last year and it has been almost impossible to winkle him out of his office since.

Oh joy, finally, I get to slough off my fleece and wellies.  Hair washed and blow dried, make up on, sophisticated outfit on, heels on, grab handbag, camera and keys, ready and off.
 

Pau is about a forty five minute drive from us and it is a smart town, I will write a more in depth post about it at a later date. The main thing is, it has very nice shops and restaurants, which are somewhat lacking in our rural but beautiful corner of the world.

First of all we had lunch at one of our favourite haunts.

  One of the things I love about France is the laissez-faire attitude towards dogs in restaurants and hotels, Crusoe get's to travel with us everywhere we go in France, and often the restaurant staff don't even need to be asked to bring a bowl of water for him, they just do it as a matter of course.

 I have seen dogs in the restaurants at The Crillon and The George V in Paris, this would be unthinkable in the UK with all the health and safety laws.  As you can see Crusoe is extremely well restaurant trained, he usually behaves beautifully and has a knack of making friends with restaurant staff, always paying special attention to the waiter or waitress who is serving us.  Once, when we were staying at a hotel, Crusoe escaped from our room, we looked for him everywhere, he had been spotted by surprised breakfast diners, running through the restaurant, where did he end up, why in the kitchen of course, making friends with the Chef.  Crusoe certainly has his priorities right.  Anyway, I have digressed.

After lunch we went for a stroll.  Pau usually has a number of a certain type of little old lady patrolling the streets, these little old ladies are extremely well coiffed and made up, clad in Chanel suit, matching quilted Chanel handbag, gloves and Ferragamo shoes.  I was longing to spot one of these little old ladies, so I could take a Sartorialist style photo, but alas, there were none to be seen, perhaps it was too cold or maybe they are at their other residences in Paris or the Cote d'Azur.

After our stroll we hit Galleries Lafayette where MG made some birthday purchases. Afterwards we visited a few more shops.

Sadly, I was just about to go into the shop below, after admiring the rather gorgeous dress and shoes in the window, when MG decided he had shopping fatigue and wanted to leave, well, it was his birthday! Maybe I will go back later in the week.

All images apart from lady with Afghan Hound and Coco taken by moi.