Let 'em fledge, let 'em fledge, let 'em fledge!

Oh, the weather outside is no longer frightful

And the doves are so delightful

(Well, that's not exactly true.
They aren't so delightful when they are cooing incessantly
on my fence before dawn on Saturday mornings!!)

It's as inevitable as the spring sun rising in the east:  if you have plants in outdoor hanging baskets, you will eventually be visited by mourning doves.

Copyleft / http://www.wikipedia.org/

Mourning doves are prolific breeders and they love to nest in hanging plants.  Despite deafening construction racket just 30 feet away, a pair of them found this philodendron to be just the ticket:

I welcome this rite of spring.  I love to see the circle of life complete itself right in my own back yard, regardless of what temporary damage it may inflict upon my plants.  I give the nesters as much space as I can, and I avoid making eye contact or noise in the hopes that the doves will follow through and raise their broods to fledge. 

However, other people may not enjoy this type of intrusion into their private spaces, so I asked the wonderful folks at Wildlife Rehab and Education (WRandE) for some pointers on how to deal with it if it's not a welcome development. 

Basically, the best approach is to remove the initial twigs and grass when the doves are not present.  It's actually fairly easy to detect when doves have targeted your property as a nesting site, because they WILL sit on your fence and coo before dawn on Saturday mornings!!  By discouraging the nest-building in the initial stages before eggs are produced, you get to keep your plants intact, and no baby birds get abandoned in the process, so it's win-win. 

Incidentally, WRandE was conceived and developed by League City's own unsung hero Sharon Schmalz, whose family homesteaded about one mile east of Centerpointe years ago when this area consisted mostly of cattle fields. 

Over the last 20-odd years, I've watched Sharon grow this org from a tiny group of volunteers to one of the most impressive wildlife nonprofits in America today.  What sets WRandE apart from similar efforts is its degree of objective professionalism and the extent to which it has managed to integrate into both government and corporate realms simultaneously.  Somebody needed to come along and smash the tree-hugger stereotype associated with this kind of public service, and Sharon was that person.   

Here's a four-minute introduction to the Wildlife Center.  Note that when Sharon says that they take in "seven thousand wild animals", she means PER YEAR!