More doocotes, more doos.

Been away for a great weeks sailing and painting on the West Coast and had a brilliant time. We rented a lovely old farmhouse by the Loch for the second year running and were able to enjoy the outside as much as the inside due to the great weather in the second half of the week.

Back at the farm while I was away we had two new doos, DooDoo and DooVet making a total of 17! One more doo on eggs, Ivy I think and that will be the last lot for the summer. I have also acquired two new dovecotes. I it is a fairly long boring story but I bought one on EBay. It arrived but it was the wrong size so the guy who made it said he would sent a replacement. That never arrived but after a month it did plus a free feeding tray. When I asked how he was going to arrange to collect the first smaller dovecote he said to either keep it or bin it as it was not economical to collect it. So I now have two lovely shiny new cotes. Hopefully we will get them erected this week and then when it rains the doos will all have places to hide.

Off to ring the three newest babies later. While it may be sunny in the rest of the UK we are blanketed with a thick haar and look to remain so. You will be laughing on the other side of your faces next week when you cannot sleep because it is too hot, when lightning knocks out all your power and when you have to paint your house white and stay inside for fear of sudden death. I heard a spokesman for NHS 24 state "people WILL die next week" Duh! Do the nanny state Elf and Safety Police not know that many grown adults holiday in exactly such conditions!

Off to put another log on the fire.

Strange goings on?

We have renamed Stillard. He/she is now DULLARD following his attempts to get back into the nest with his mother. On two occasions now we have had to remove him from a different nest hole as his Mum who is on eggs again was getting pretty angry about the while affair, Dullard seems confused as to which nest box is his, he has been out and about with the brighter Wellard but on going back in gets confused and heads for the wrong nest hole. Wellard always makes it back to the right home. They will be flying free any day now but I am concerned about the possible repercussions should the eggs start hatching.

Yesterday we saw a large ugly crow going for the lower ( sanctuary) nest box and after it had gone shooed away by a pretty angry wee doo we saw that one of the latest eggs in the lower nest appeared to have hatched, this will be named Voo Doo, sibling to Doo Doo should it hatch too ( named by the Lucian arm of the family, Doo Doo is the Lucian word for sweetheart). To be honest from what I could see Voo Doo did not appear to be moving and it was very small and I don't know if the crow had managed to crack the egg open or if it was coincidence that the egg had hatched just prior to the attack. All efforts to get a look at the baby today have failed.

Later in the day I spotted the crow back again so took a shot at it but missed . It has not come back though so maybe a pellet whizzing past its head was enough to scare it away.

Doo count possible 15 if little Voo Doo has survived.

Ladies in Laburnum

Despite doves not liking perching in trees ( according to the books) mine love it and not only do they love it but they enjoy pecking at the deadly laburnum flowers too!

This morning Sam and I ringed the latest babies, Wellard and Stillard ( Pink and Blue Rings) who will probably be in the nest for a couple more weeks as they are still being fed and have not yet developed their full adult feathers, still some wispy yellow feather around the neck areas.

The eggs are due to hatch this weekend and thereafter if any more are laid I will replace them with china eggs which arrived this week. The new dove cote should eventually arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday and then we will have enough shelter for all the doves. Dove count still 14 with 2 due this week and 2 more a week or so later.