New baby at the Haven

It's all my fault. Ever since the Rock Doves got here, they have been mating and laying eggs like crazy. I have been taking their eggs and putting in dummy ones but I missed one and by the time I realised, one egg had started to incubate.

Anyhow, Dovecotes are up and yesterday was the day for moving the doves. When we went in we found that the egg had hatched during the night and there was a tiny baby dove. A little later, we noticed that another dove had pushed mum off the nest and then another one pushed that one off, the result being that baby dove was just sitting there, freezing cold with no mummy bird.

We took the decision to bring the baby into the hospital as mum was showing no signs at all of going back to it. Also, somehow in the fracas, it got a small wound on it's side, not serious but enough to worry it might get hurt in the squabbles :(

Very nerve wracking as it is such a tiny but it made it through the night and seems quite chipper this morning.

Rock Doves are now in the Dovecotes, netted in for a week or two and seem to be settling fine.

Here is the babe