My hat laid an egg!

I'd noticed my straw gardening hat wasn't on our patio table but I didn't bother really looking for it until I was going to spend an entire day out in the yard trimming back branches before the house painters arrived. I looked in the house but it wasn't there. Finally I noticed it had blown off the table and landed on one of the patio chairs.

When I picked it up I was shocked to see a small, blush colored egg sitting on the chair.

Just like that!

It only took me moments to realize that I must have left my hat on the table upside down and a Mourning Dove, notorious for being poor nest builders and very opportunistic layers, must have sat in my hat and laid her egg. Then the wind blew the hat over and the egg and hat fell onto the padded chair, protecting the egg from damage.

The sad thing is the nights have been pretty chilly and the egg must have been without its mother's warmth for days so if it was a viable egg, I was certain it wasn't any longer :(

See the second baby's face behind the first one?

But later that same day I discovered another dove had built a nest under the eave of our house and she had two babies that had hatched!

I'd have been happier about them if we weren't having our house painted this week. I even made a sign to remind our painters they were there. It has too much tape on it because I first taped it to the garbage can I put under the hummingbird nest when I thought I was hanging the hummingbird warning sign. LOL

So the house painter had to avoid power washing that section of the back of the house and will have to come back and finish that area after the babies have fledged.

Mama's back!

He's a really nice guy though. As soon as I told him there was a nest with babies he offered to work around them. 

Still on the lookout for baby hummingbirds. I'll keep you posted if they start peeking their heads out of their nest any time soon. ETA: They hatched!