A pair of Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) built a nest on top of Opel Mok’s pot of mint plant and laid one egg on 9th and another on 11th July 2008.
The eggs hatched on 24th July . Most probably hatching was on different days and Opel would have missed seeing one of the adult flying off with the eggshell, as is usually the case. The above shows, from left, the adult with two eggs, two-days old and six-days old chicks.
The adults took turns brooding the chicks and fed them with crop milk, as with pigeons and doves. Above, from left: adult with 7-days of chicks, ten-days and 13-days old chicks.
At 14-days, the chicks left the nest and rested in the porch. There were still around the next day (above left) but by 8th August when they were 16-days old, they were ready to fly off. Mother and child spent the day on the grill as it was raining (above centre). By afternoon they were still around (above right). However, at 1915 hours the fledglings flew off
As Opel mused: “Still around this afternoon. I’m going to miss them on 8th August.”
