A mother dove recently nesting near the home of Dallas and Joyce Wiese in Montour. -- Contributed photo

When you become a senior citizen we have discovered you take time to appreciate life more than when you are young, particularly nature.

During the evening through the summer, we would spend some time in our swing, watching and listening to birds.

One morning when we were going out to go to town, we discovered a dove sitting on the golf cart.

I went up toward it, the bird not moving and reached over to touch it.

It still didn’t move so I stroked the feathers lightly, with no reaction.

A nest of baby doves not long after they hatched. -- Contributed photo

Sitting in the swing the next few evenings, the dove would sit on the electric line coming from the road to our pole, sometimes cleaning her feathers and sometimes making sounds. We watched her each evening.

After a couple days not seeing her, we discovered grass and twigs in our eave spout near the swing.

Putting a ladder up beside the house next to the nest, we could see two eggs, one cracked and ready for the baby to enter this world.

Mother bird did not seem to mind our intrusion so when they were hatched, we took our camera up and got pictures of the babies.

It took a few days for the babies to mature enough so they could begin to fly.

A few days after their first flying lesson, our little ones and their mother disappeared.

We are very hopeful dove hunters did not find them and shorten the lives of three symbols of peace.

Dallas and Joyce Wiese

Montour