The rustling of the pine needles caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes to focus on my guest in the blue pine outside my home office window. A mourning dove and her mate built a nest nearly within in arm’s reach outside my window, and the mama dove now brooded over at least one hatchling.
Just as my eyes focused, she puffed up, shaking and clucking. That’s when I saw it. A gray squirrel was inching closer to the mother and her nest.
“Hey!” I yelled, and raced to the window. I threw it open and yelled again, “Hey, get out of here!”
The squirrel crawled down several branches. “Keep going,” I said. “Shoo! Shoo!” The squirrel continued to climb down. I sat back down at my computer, but within minutes I saw the branch shaking again as the squirrel inched close to the nest again.
“What the hell?”—I thought and went back to the window. Out of the corner of my eye I saw more movement above and below. Two more squirrels were moving in on the mother dove. I wrestled the screen out of the window, and the noise startled them enough to get them to back off. But I knew they were determined to get at that nest, and I was just as determined to stop them.
I went to the utility room and unscrewed the handle from a mop and waited. It didn’t take long before they started their three-pronged maneuver. I shot out of my chair and thrust my makeshift weapon at the squirrel nearest the nest. Two of the squirrels immediately dropped to the ground and raced away. The third climbed about halfway down.
I looked him in the eye and shook my stick as I said, “You better get the fuck out of here.” He jumped down and ran off like the others.
The mother dove and I looked at each other. I gave her a small wave and went back to work.
I won’t be able to watch and protect her all the time, but I hope they’ve learned to look elsewhere.
The Philomath 
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