Well, Round 3 did not turn out so well.

The “Love Doves,” as Mike and I have been calling them, followed a very similar pattern with their third clutch of eggs laid in the hanging basket on our porch. Each took turns sitting on the pair of perfect, white eggs daily, with a shift change from male to female occurring around sunset. We figured that everything was going according to plan, just as it had with the first two pairs of eggs that they successfully hatched.

A few days ago, we saw a familiar sight. A tiny head was poking out of the leaves of my spider plant. We watched and waited, but we only saw one baby bird. After a couple of days and witnessing a couple of feeding sessions, we realized that the second egg probably wasn’t going to hatch.

Then, tragedy struck.

On Wednesday, when Mike headed out for work, he found a lifeless bird on our front porch, maybe 8-10 feet away from the next. At first. he thought it was one of the parents and that perhaps a neighborhood cat had caught up with it. He quickly removed it from the porch and put off telling me what he had found.

Later, when I told him I didn’t see the hatchling in the nest anymore, he told me what he had found. Upon looking more closely at the deceased creature, we determined it was, in fact, the baby bird. We also figured out that it was pretty likely that in testing its wings, it had crashed into our front window and fatally injured itself.

I then decided maybe it was time to move that hanging plant to a more open location, but the parent doves were having none of that. They spent the afternoon circling the area, sitting on wires above our house and trying to figure out where their baby had gone. I finally retrieved the plant from the backyard and set it on the trunk of my car in plain sight. In no time at all, one parent was back on the nest with the other one cooing down from the wire.

Still, they continued to swoop on and off the porch, looking for the next to return to its original location. I finally gave it, retuning the hanging basket to its hook. In no time at all, both birds were on the nest together, clearly trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

It was heartbreaking to watch their distress throughout the afternoon and evening, but there was nothing we could do to save their chick.

Doves can lay eggs up to six times per year, and we had thought these ones might do just that. But, they disappeared Wednesday night and haven;t been back. I guess we will have to wait and see.