It is a race against time for this poor paloma. I've been watching her for the past few weeks since I live on a second floor and this palm's fronds are right off my balcony. I was wondering if she was making a nest and apparently she was. Not only that, but I see little downy-feathered blobs under her. The problem, as you can see is the frond she chose is a bottom one and dying - the natural cycle with palms. It eventually will either fall off the tree or lay flat against the trunk. In which case, if the birds haven't flown off they will likely end up on the sidewalk below. IDK what can be done about it. I guess nature and fate will take its course.
Today when I got home from work, I noticed the palm frond had fallen. Probably today's wind and rain took it down. What I didn't mention yesterday was that Miami Beach is crawling with cats and there at least half a dozen around my apartment complex. Actually before I saw the fallen frond, I saw one of the cats with a little dead paloma in its mouth. I found another little dead bird. Guess there were only two. Very sad, they didn't have a chance.
What's really sad is the mother Paloma keeps coming back to the fallen branch and hangs out on my balcony rail looking down for her young Doves make a very melodic, sad sound normally and today she is really singing her sorrow. I can see her on the rail thru my open window at the moment as I type this. A little history: When I was a kid in the 'burbs of St. Louis there were a couple of doves hanging out around my house, usually perched up on a wire in the back yard. My stepbrother threw a rock at them and with a lucky strike hit and killed one. The other kept coming back for a week, same spot looking around. It was really sad and perhaps shaped my empathy toward lesser creatures - realizing that without anthropomorphising, they do have feelings and emotions. So now I must endure the sorrow of this mother for her lost young - and can't even offer condolences.
