…in the making of this video, but I wanted to convince myself that it was alive, so I kept bumping it until it stretched its arms out to brace itself.

Under my gardening table I have a trash can that I use for convenience to discard things I can’t compost. I almost reached in to get one of the bamboo leaves that fell in there, only to see that it was a living bug! Lest you think I was making it up, here’s the juxtaposition from the bamboo area of our backyard and under the outdoor staircase where a lot of the dead bamboo leaves collect.

For those who have been following, the morning dove chicks in the welcome sign on our front porch are growing beautifully. Below you can see two chicks with one of their parents. The other parent is usually fluttering nearby on our roof, which hangs pretty close to the nest. They trust the chicks enough to stay safe when they both leave the nest now. We put out some birdseed nearby.

Seeing them healthy and thriving when we returned from vacation was inspiring, especially after we had observed another kind of chick that was extremely young and which had fallen from its nest outside of our hotel room.

In a previous posting of the doves at our home, I only saw one chick that had very scrawny feathers, so it’s good to see them this mature and well-fed.

This family home is hanging up with one nail! When they leave for the year, I’m going to make sure it’s reinforced. I’m told they will probably come back to nest there annually, which is thrilling.

And for the skeptics who think these aren’t real, here is some updated video:

And a few days later, they were gone!

So I’m hanging a piece of recycled art on our front patio, and I turn around and look at this welcome sign that has hung there for a few years, which was a gift from our former roommate in Hayward. I called Shando because I did not know where he got the bird figurine which was sitting there staring at me in the welcome sign. Well, there’s a good reason for that….BECAUSE IT’S NOT A figurine. It’s a real dove nesting on her eggs! I’ve seen these doves flit around our front patio in the past few weeks, but always thought they were building a nest on the roof at a “safe” distance from our front door slamming. Now I see they have been inches away from us. Even the hammering I just did today had not caused her to flinch. I love that they feel safe there and hope they come back every year now.

Some may remember the story of how I found the morning dove on our front porch. Well, now the couple’s chick has arrived! I only see one so far. If you look carefully at this video below, you’ll see its heart beating and it moves its wing just a tad. Mother actually blinks too, which is rare.