Inseparable “friends”, Thelma and Louise sit for most of every day apparently super-glued to their favourite branch in a tree at the top of my garden. They sit there, throughout the year, ocassionally dropping down to the seed trough that I top-up for them, the Pheasants and the Red-Legged Partridge every day. All other Collared Dove “interlopers” are chased off without exception! Both birds also exhibit frequent nest-building activity, followed by a tendency to sit around afterwards as if to say “what next?”. Well, “what next” actually took place yesterday when a male bird appeared out of the blue and proceeded to strut his stuff across the top of ye olde rustic swing that sits just beneath the branch that’s so beloved of our devoted pair. I looked on with interest, expecting the young upstart to be shown the door in no uncertain terms, but instead of that, a brazen Louise dropped down to said Romeo and, before I knew it, the dirty deed was done. No more than 30 seconds and it was all over….amazing (certainly beats my record)!

However, instead of the expected shared cigarette with her new amore, Louise suddenly turned upon the hapless young male and proceeded to give him a thorough beating-up. At this point, Thelma flew down to assist her partner and the young lad was forced to flee for his life!

What to make of it all? Well, Thelma was certainly content to look on as Louise “capitulated” and the “act” most definitely took place. The male was then “seen off” in no uncertain terms by both birds. Now I must wait to see if anything develops. Could it be that T & L will finally fulfil their dream of raising their own family? Is that what they actually want? Was their behaviour in any way determined? Is this sort of thing normal behaviour for Collared Doves….who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next! (See the “General Diary Stuff” page of www.wildliferanger.com for more on our intrepid pair of Doves).