The Find of the Week!

People, it doesn't get any better than this. While Breck was outside playing today he found nestled in our sweet little maple tree a Mourning Dove and her chicks. The nest was barely above my head and the foliage wasn't too thick so we were able to observe her for quite some time. At first I thought she only had one chick with but we soon discovered that she had two. I brought a step stool out and the kids took turns climbing up and watching her. She didn't squawk or try to get us to leave, instead she stayed perfectly motionless. Not even her eye moved.

Just as we were about to leave the little chicks began clambering for something to eat. So she opened her beak and they placed their beaks inside her beak to eat. We're not talking one at a time here...they both wanted it now! As you can imagine, we were delighted to watch them.

This year our nature study is focused on birds so this little lady is going to be Exhibit A. We plan to watch her and her babies closely every day to watch them grow. We'll be reading every book we can get our hands on that talk about the Mourning dove. This is, in my humble opinion, the best way to study Science.