Friday, December 19, 2008

Mourning Dove


Mourning Doves are quite common, yet however common they are I'm still drawn to their mournful call which, to me, is soothing and comfortable. This time of the year they tend to congregate in canopies of bare trees, seemingly like ornaments dotted here and there. Doves are frequent visitors to our feeder and always drives Baylee crazy.
Cornell gives some cool facts about these birds. Seems during nest building the female stays at the nest and the male collects sticks, standing on her back to present the nesting material to her. She in turns take the material and weaves it into the nest. She normally lays 2 eggs and may have up to five or six clutches in a single year. The male usually incubates from midmorning until late afternoon and the female sits the rest of the day and night.
These beautiful birds are plentiful, being the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. There are dove hunts here, of course, as in all part of North America yet the Mourning Dove remains among the 10 most abundant birds in the US. These birds remain close to my heart with their whistling wings and sudden bursts into flight, and their feathers are so beautiful.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Their tails are very pretty. I too love their calls. They soothe me.

Unknown said...

Interesting perspective on the photo, I like it. Yeah, I'm a fan too of that mournful call of theirs. When I was a kid I thought that that sound was an owl- they sounded like that were saying "hoot". And as any kid that read a book knew- owls said "hoot". I guess I was a teenager before I discovered that the "whoing" sound was coming from the dove.

Deborah Carr said...

Lovely photo...there is something bout the presence of the dove...their haunting murmurs have the power to calm, soothe, and quiet a soul.

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