# A stock dove has laid an egg in my window box



## parismarais (Jul 10, 2014)

Hi all! New member here with some questions about a tricky situation. 

Over the last months a pair of stock doves have been hanging around the window boxes of my apartment. I'd never seen the species before and I like pigeons of all sorts so it was nice to spot them! Apparently they're rare to see in the city (I live in Paris, France) and lay eggs in holes in old trees. Because of what I read about them I thought they couldn't possibly want lay eggs in my window boxes so I built them a nest box specifically for this species. They completely ignored it (probably not impressed by my terrible carpentry skills).

I tried my best to leave them be but our windows have blinds on the outside so they'd be scared away whenever they were opened or closed (I needed to water the plants at some point). Yesterday I saw one of them sitting cosily in one of the planters so I left her alone all day. In the evening I closed the blind and she flew away leaving a single egg behind! I felt so guilty chasing her away and stayed on the lookout for afar to see if she'd come back. Sure enough she was there an hour later and my partner and I decided that we'd leave the blind closed and leave them alone for as long as they need. They must be pretty desperate if they needed to lay eggs there.

*There are a couple of issues though:*

1) I assume they picked the window box they did because it's quiet and the plants are tall enough to hide under. Thing is the weather has been awful the last week so those poor birds are exposed to rain.

2) When the weather is good, that particular corner gets a lot of hot sun in the late afternoon for a couple of hours, so it could get pretty hot for them.

3) I can't access that window anymore I can't really water the plants, so eventually they may die. It's rained a lot lately so I probably won't need to water them for a week or more but eventually it'll be a problem because they may lose their hide out. 

I'm wondering if I shouldn't build some sort of shelter for them so they're out of the sun and rain? The thing that worries me is if I install it while they're still incubating the eggs, will they be scared away indefinitely? Should I find some way to water the plants from afar (e.g. using a super soaker)? Should i just leave them be? 

I want my guests and their potential babies to be a comfortable as possible, does anyone have any advice?


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## pigeonZz(r my life) (Jun 30, 2014)

Don't worry about them they are wild animals they are built to handle weather and there feather are water resistant you can water your plants don't feel bad if she fly's away they never go to far she will come right back when your done with your plants. They wont get to hot either it will actually speed up the growing process of the bird inside the egg.


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