MY MOURNING DOVE

***Here is another edition of the "bird-blog" series on Millstones. First of all, some perspective on these posts. It is mid-winter, and although many birds are coming to the feeders and water, the weather has been lousy and not suitable for success in taking bird pictures. Currently I'm trying to capture "my largest woodpecker" and although the flickers are here every day, they are extra shy and I've not got a good shot yet. So my option is to skip the whole thing for a while or pull some pictures out the archives. I'll try the latter a time or two and see how it goes.

***As a kid growing up in Southern California, there were dozens of birds around in everyday life. The most common were the mockingbirds and the mourning doves and it was a rare day at home or anywhere in the countryside to not be within sight and sound of one or both kinds. When we came to live in southwest Washington State, over a thousand miles north of San Diego County, I was rather surprised to notice doves at my neighbor's feeder and up on his exterior TV antenna. That's as close as they came for most of a decade - until I started feeding my flocks with black-oil sunflower seeds. Having most of a park-like five acres out the dining-room window helped too, because the mourning dove here is even more shy than my flickers.

***The adult Mourning Dove (Zenaida Macoura) is 12" long from crown to tail tip. The call is a soft, haunting, but unmistakable" Whoo-AHH-coo-coo-coo" that seems to come echo-like from several directions at once. I love the sound. My doves, and I had six or eight until late autumn, would alight on the lawn some thirty feet from the house and begin slowly zig-zagging as they approach the area of the feeders which hang each side of the window. If several were working together, most would hang back while the "scouts" checked out the house, other birds and whether seed was available. Sometimes a couple would perch in a nearby pine as lookouts. Gradually over a period of as much as ten minutes, a bold individual would finally arrive below the window and under the feeders where finch and other sloppy birds had spilled plenty of seeds to the ground. Since the Juncoes work that area diligently, most of the ground there is covered with half-shells.

***For months any movement dectected through the window would send the doves darting away with a soft whirring, whistling sound, and it could be hours before they would return. The doves, in fact, seem to be able to see through the glass better than any other bird, and even a walk-by inside would spook them. Finally, after several failed attempts, I got this shot by opening the window in advance, wrapping the drape around me, pre-pointing the camera and being very still until the dove arrived below, I captured the image shown sometime last season. Neat, Huh?

***Since the doves have come, I'm starting to see the occasional pigeon from a neighborhood flock, and I am having a winter plague of starlings now. Those bird types are so large and aggressive that smaller and far more desirable friends are quickly intimidated. Still, here it is in mid-winter and this week - rain, wind, rain snow mix, and snow pellets and all - I have seen at least one dove twice. I have no clue whether most doves migrate, but one cold buddy is still in the area. I threw an extra handful of seeds out the window just for him. I hope he got his share.