Amuse-bouche or the Story of a Hippity-Hoppity Dove

I was hanging my washing a few days ago enjoying the feel of it flapping in the breeze.  As I turned to step back into the house, in front of me lay a young bird on its back, his feet flapping in the same breeze and a beseeching look on his small face.  I immediately flipped him over, and he has been living in my rear courtyard every since.

We have dubbed him 'Amuse-bouche', in part because C2 sees everything in food terms, and in part because he eats such tiny quanities of everything I've offered.  Bread? check, watermelon? check, strawberries? not-so-much, fish? definitely not!

We have determined that he is a young mourning dove.  His mother visits him frequently but nothing she or I do have convinced him to take flight.  He's happy to flutter to the top of my flower pots but has a decided preference to hopping everywhere in his explorations.  Hop hop through the low box hedges, hop hop around all of my flower pots, hop hop under the table, and hop splash into the puddles.  I was thrilled to watch him catch a bug yesterday evening!

He's very curious, very independant, very cute, and I'm getting very attached.  I really shouldn't since I know how these things usually end.  Countless numbers of wild birds die every day but Amuse-bouche is just one little bird, and he's in my backgarden.  We are all keeping a watchful eye on him (even C2) and are hoping that soon one morning, he will just be gone...and in a good way.

Watch this space for more on Amuse-bouche.