Pigeon Nest under deck (chicago)

[dexter]

Hello:


Any help would be appreciated. We discovered a nest under our deck last week. I can only see the a little bit of the nest with a flashlight thru the slats in the boards (it's a 3rd fl. deck) and I saw what looked like two broken-in-half eggs, but not broken as if something's hatched.

Is it possible the mother might have broken them open due to an extreme disturbance (our 2 dogs had been barking and scratching furiously at the boards before we knew it was there)? Also, based on what I've read so far, it seems like the father's not around, as I think I've only seen one pigeon there on the nest, and it's always at night, not during the day.

The only way for us to check for sure is to unscrew the boards and see what's underneath, but I'm hesitant to do this because I don't want to disrupt anything. Our plan was to let the babies grow, leave the nest, and then remove it, as my dogs and 3 kids spend a lot of time up there in the summer. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Mary

[Pidgey]

It's not really doing any harm, is it? You won't disrupt things much if you just look and put the boards back--it won't scare the parents off for very long.

Pidgey

[Reti]

Thank you letting those potential babies hatch and grow. You could take a look, I guess, the parents will leave and came back if the nest itself is not disturbed. But there is not really much point in doing that, you will see in a few weeks if there a babies, you will hear the peeping and eventually in four to five weeks they will come out.

Is it possible that there are two parents and they look similar? Usually only one sits in the nest with the eggs and the babies, the father during the day and the mother late afternoon, and all night until late in the morning.

Reti

[The pigeon man]

I agree with Reti theres no point in checking it wont hurt to check but if you do check and there is nothing in the nest. Like if something ate the eggs than the hen will find a mate and come back there to lay the eggs so if there is nothing there i think it would be a good idea to take the nest away if you dont want it to return.


Vik