I took these pictures of our beautiful doves on a lovely spring evening and the very next day a sparrow hawk took four of them within 24 hours. It is sickening, the stupid bird didn't even eat any of them, just killed them and left them lying around, and yes it is definately a sparrow hawk, I know my birds of prey!
They were so pretty, and went everywhere in a little band together, sometimes they were cheeky and when we fed the hens they would join in! The hens couldn't get to the doves food though!
When we got home from work and they heard us getting out of the car they would coo to us even when it was the middle of winter and pitch black!
The really sad thing is that this one is the mummy and she was the first one that was taken. The two chicks were just starting to get their feathers and luckily they are ok (touch wood!)
Feeding platform, the one on the right is daddy, he has a pink ring on his leg. He got taken about a week after the first ones.
The dove cote last night it was slept in! We only have two remaining adults and the two chicks. Luckily we have a large dog run and we moved the survivors into it. Daddy was also moved into the dog run and did a very good job of looking after the babies until he took it into his head to squeeze through a tiny gap and escape and unfortunately that was the end of him. It isn't perfect - but at least the survivors are alive. There is room to fly (it is about 15' x 4' and nearly 7' tall so they are not in a tiny box. The chicks are eating themselves now and growing up, I worry about how they will learn to fly. I hate sparrow hawks.
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