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.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mourning_Dove.html

Carolina Wren

This little tubby Carolina Wren needs to lay off the holiday seeds. My heavens, what a fat little guy! Won't his fat belly cause drag to his normally acrobatic flight?

It's not just bad camera angle. He's fat no matter where he is.

If wrens could be bowlegged he'd be a good candidate. I love wrens. These tiny birds have a huge attitude with a voice to match. Loud. Very. Only the males sing the loud song, but both sing. Cornell says the male and female sing different parts, and usually interweave their songs such that they sound like a single bird singing. A pair bond may form between a male and a female at any time of the year, and the pair will stay together for life. Members of a pair stay together on their territory year-round, and forage and move around the territory together.

My mom had a wren nest in her wreath, and my friend had one nest in her geraniums. They seem to be quite social and interact well with other birds at the feeder.

That some people can look at a bird, or any creature of nature, and not understand that they have families and form forever bonds is inconceivable to me.

Some facts compliments of Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Carolina_Wren_dtl.html

Reflections

I adore hearing from friends. One friend I've not e-chatted with in a while sent an e-mail last night. Her brief prose acknowledged the struggles each of us are facing within our little group of pals, and then she proceeded to compile a list of everything in her life there is to be happy about right now, this minute. I'm borrowing her idea and posting my list here in hopes that writing it and reading it will remind me just how fortunate I am.

1. This hot cup of coffee in my hand
2. Music
3. Great, wonderful, loving, supportive friends
4. Amazing family - here and all over
5. Food in the fridge and pantry
6. Nature
7. Camera and accompanying gear
8. Hot showers
9. Sunrises and sunsets
10. Migrating birds
11. Ample clothing to wear
12. Roof over my head
13. A good heat pump
14. My cookware
15. All my senses intact
16. Good health, my own and my immediate family's and friend's

Feel free to compile your own lists of blessings and gratitude's.

February 28, 2008

Back when the Subaru was running well and could be trusted to take me there and back again without incident, I found this dirt road leading to a pond. I'd seen an egret, so my thought was to sneak up on the creature and capture him (or her) for posterity. The egret wasn't having it and flew away upon my noisy arrival. However, this gaggle of Canada Geese had been, oh...I dunno...sunbathing? They popped up their heads, which waved about atop their long necks like snakes. It was such a funny moment. I barely got this shot through the windshield before they began rising and waddling toward the water. It was a simple pleasure that made me laugh all by myself.

October 15, 2002

I didn't know of winter birds then, but do now. We'd been here at this lake house less than one year when this photo was taken and I'd found myself fascinated by the feathered thespians within the play that acted incessantly outside my window pane, between here and the lake which draws them. The winter birds, the winter birds. "The days grow short as the nights grow long, the kettle sings its tortured song..." "The winter birds have come back again..." (Ray LaMontagne)

Encapsulated within my domestic bubble during winter gray days that fell one after another that first cold spell like dominoes, a simple joy came in seeking new birds that lit upon trees outside. It was here and then that I discovered lighting and perching in the bare branches all manner of waterfowl and songbirds from books long forgotten while bobbing and diving upon the lake itself were various mergansers and ducks, geese and cormorants. Great Blue Herons landed in hickories, yellow-rumped warblers and goldfinches picked at birdseed, Downy woodpeckers, nuthatches and flickers climbed trees for suet, and I rediscovered the loud, raucous calls of red-headed woodpeckers. Bluebirds, finches, sparrows, wrens, cardinals, mockingbirds, and orioles surprised and delighted me. The fight between blue jays and squirrels amused as much as the dive-bombing of hawks and ospreys took me by surprise.

Nature played out as it was destined to do with or without my observation. Mergansers behaved much the same as penguins and white pelicans became heralded visitors. Bald eagles were exclamation points, worthy of phone calls to neighbors. It was here and then that I knew that nature and conservation were a destiny of a sort.

Since then our Conservancy has been created, greater learning and awareness for our riparian zone has grown, and a passion for conservation, indigenous birds, insects, flora and watershed protection has become a passion. One blooms where one is planted, as I've heard said. It is true. Open yourself to what's around you and heed the calling. Be true to yourself and your passion for living. This is a Note To Self.