So everyone is in bed awaiting santa and I'm sitting here thinking of this poor little dove from earlier today.
We have lots of doves around here, I frequently have to rescue them from the chicken pen because they can figure out how to get IN, but not how to get out, lol. Anyway, around noon today I was driving thru my neighborhood to pick my daughter up from a friends and while I was sitting at a stop sign a small hawk dive bombed a dove right in front of me! they hit the ground, feathers went flying and then the dove took off and flew under my truck. The hawk flew away.
A moment after the shock wore off I realized I hadn't seen the dove come out from under my truck so I put it in park. It rolled forward a couple of inches, like they do, and then I got out and looked under. Poor baby was pinned (not smashed, just slightly pinned) under the passenger rear tire. Realizing I rolled forward on him when I put it in park about broke my heart.
I jumped back in, reversed a foot, got back out and went around. the poor baby was sitting with its mouth open, panting... I picked it up and held it, it didn't try to get away or anything, it just rolled slightly to the side that had been against my tire. It seemed like the inside of his mouth was very red, granted I have never seen the inside of a dove's mouth before but I hope it wasn't a result of internal bleeding.
Having seen plenty of birds suddenly recover from a state of shock and fly off, I wasn't about to bring it in my truck but I couldn't leave it out in the open either. So I went into a nearby yard and tucked it up under a bush.
On my way back from getting my daughter I was going to stop and get it and bring it home so it wouldn't be at danger from any neighborhood cats.. but when I drove up I saw it had crawled further up under the bush and there was no way I was getting to it. Taking this as a good sign, I drove on.
My husband says I should have left it for the hawk. I'm all about the circle of life etc, but I just feel bad for the little guy. I hope my moving him didn't prolong suffering, or that my truck rolling forward didn't do damage further than the hawk.
Ok, hopefully I can let this go now. thanks for listening!
We have lots of doves around here, I frequently have to rescue them from the chicken pen because they can figure out how to get IN, but not how to get out, lol. Anyway, around noon today I was driving thru my neighborhood to pick my daughter up from a friends and while I was sitting at a stop sign a small hawk dive bombed a dove right in front of me! they hit the ground, feathers went flying and then the dove took off and flew under my truck. The hawk flew away.
A moment after the shock wore off I realized I hadn't seen the dove come out from under my truck so I put it in park. It rolled forward a couple of inches, like they do, and then I got out and looked under. Poor baby was pinned (not smashed, just slightly pinned) under the passenger rear tire. Realizing I rolled forward on him when I put it in park about broke my heart.
I jumped back in, reversed a foot, got back out and went around. the poor baby was sitting with its mouth open, panting... I picked it up and held it, it didn't try to get away or anything, it just rolled slightly to the side that had been against my tire. It seemed like the inside of his mouth was very red, granted I have never seen the inside of a dove's mouth before but I hope it wasn't a result of internal bleeding.
Having seen plenty of birds suddenly recover from a state of shock and fly off, I wasn't about to bring it in my truck but I couldn't leave it out in the open either. So I went into a nearby yard and tucked it up under a bush.
On my way back from getting my daughter I was going to stop and get it and bring it home so it wouldn't be at danger from any neighborhood cats.. but when I drove up I saw it had crawled further up under the bush and there was no way I was getting to it. Taking this as a good sign, I drove on.
My husband says I should have left it for the hawk. I'm all about the circle of life etc, but I just feel bad for the little guy. I hope my moving him didn't prolong suffering, or that my truck rolling forward didn't do damage further than the hawk.
Ok, hopefully I can let this go now. thanks for listening!
