It's almost time to say goodbye...

Some of you will remember my second blip at the start of January featuring the crazy dove who starting sitting on her ramshackle nest around Christmas Day.

At first I thought she was insane and then came to admire her spirit. Throughout all the snow we had and the plunging temperatures she was steadfast and resolute. One day we thought she had left the nest but it was just the snow around her had made her temporarily invisible to the naked eye.

Two to three weeks ago there was a rumour that there was a real egg and it had hatched. This was quickly followed by another rumour that a local cat (we all suspect of multiple wildlife murders) had killed the dove?s true love. I saw evidence of a brutal struggle for life on my neighbour?s lawn and confirmed it was the partial remains of a collared dove and was more than likely dead. The pitchforks came out and wanted posters for the cat that gives cat a bad name was posted around the avenue.

I quashed the rumours of Lady Dove being a single parent family when I spotted her beau preening himself on a telegraph pole. That was a relief. It was the first time I had seen some form of male companion and this added weight to the theory that there was a chick and that the bird was not simply delusional and undergoing a phantom nesting.

Over the days I have seen the chick grow bit by bit and watched as the mother has been slowly ratcheted up in the nest as the chick has grown. The nest, which would have been condemned by most level-headed birds, was looking very cramped and unstable as the two birds had to share a small platform, 12 feet up, made of a loose assortment of old twigs.

Today, on my usual visual check of the nest through the window, the nest was empty and the chick had gone. A quick scan around with the binoculars located the chick in the next tree. The moment was drawing when the little one would soon be making its own way and it is both a happy and sad moment for me.

We all our nature lovers on our little street and have been willing the dove on since she first set up house at the front of my neighbours house. I have grown so attached to the mother dove that I almost turned my mind to knitting her a cardigan and a hat when the weather was particularly nasty.

I have learned a little more about this species of doves which has endeared me to them. The male and female take turns incubating the eggs, one having the day shift and the other the night shift. In addition, they partner for life, which I thought was really sweet and quaint.

I think she is an early contender for ?Mother of the Year ? 2010.? I hope you agree.