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DEAR JOAN: I’ve got a dove nesting in my hanging fern basket. The problem is I need to water my fern.
I have no idea if the dove has laid eggs or not. Do you have any suggestions?
Steve, Bay Area
DEAR STEVE: Mourning doves are excellent parents but lousy nest builders, often placing their nests in the least suitable places ever. They’ve also been known to put down a couple of pieces of grass on a flat surface and call it good.
The plant basket actually is one of the better decisions for a mourning dove, so we should give them some props for that. However, it doesn’t leave you or your fern with many options.
Once a bird has an established nest, you’re not allowed to touch it. The birds, the nest and the eggs all are protected by federal law. It doesn’t matter if eggs are there yet or not; the bird has built a nest and you’ll just have to wait it out.
You can try watering the plant very carefully, lifting up the fronds and pouring water directly on the soil with a watering can, or installing some drip irrigation designed for potted plants.
If your actions around the plant seem to upset the parents, then you must stop and sacrifice your fern. Incubation of the eggs will take 14 to 16 days after the doves start sitting on the nest, and the young birds will remain in the nest for another 12 to 14 days.
Mark your calendar and keep a close watch as fledging time approaches. Once the birds have left, you can remove the nest and water your plant, but you’ll have to be quick. Mourning doves produce several broods a year, and they often reuse their nests. You should move or cover the fern to prevent it from happening again.
To encourage the doves to build elsewhere, construct a nesting container for them by cutting a large circle out of a 12-inch square piece of hardware cloth. Cut out a narrow pie-wedge shape and form the wire into a cone. Attach it securely in a tree or other protected area.
DEAR JOAN: This is a weird one and I hope you can figure it out. Something attacked my newspaper.
There were two puncture holes — one large, one small — at each end of the orange rain bag. Sunday’s newspaper was taken out of the bag and some of it was shredded in 2-inch pieces.
Fortunately, it was only the real estate section and puzzle section.
Our cats are indoor only. We are in a semi-rural area. Over time, we have had deer, fox, raccoons and opossums in the neighborhood, and a coyote recently was seen by neighbors almost a mile away.
Barbara Bushée, El Sobrante
DEAR BARBARA: Everybody’s a critic, I guess, but hopefully there was a good reason behind the vandalism.
It actually could have been many creatures. My first thought was that a dog mistook your newspaper for a chew toy, but after some consideration, I’m thinking it might have been a squirrel.
A larger animal probably would have done more damage, scattering pages all over the driveway and ripping the paper and the bag to bits. Although this was messy, the shredding seems to have had a purpose — the animal may have been gathering nesting material — and that’s something squirrels would do.
