Sunday, February 24, 2019

Bird notes - the Mourning dove.


 I shared this lone dove on the birdbath HERE last week.
I believe this is a male as it lacks the pinkish neck feathers of the female.
 Hopefully it will have a mate soon. We usually have several pairs in the garden.
 These lovely birds mate for life, an awesome seven to ten years.
This handsome boy, perhaps a juvenile, spent quite a long time in the fig tree
 yesterday busily preening between the heavy rain storms.

All photos taken through the dining room window.







Phew!  All that preening and fluffing of my beautiful feathers has just about
worn me out. . . . . . . . . .


. . . . . . . definitely time for a little shut-eye!

The Mourning dove gets its name from its gentle, mournful cooing.
The wind rushing through its wing feathers in flight creates a characteristic 
whistling sound. Other than that the dove is a quiet and very welcome bird 
in the garden, and one of my favorites.



7 comments:

  1. Good morning! We too have had what seems like weeks of cold, gray, rainy days with only the odd day here and there of the sun making an appearance. The only bright part of the day is seeing the beautiful birds show up to eat and preen even in the rain. This dove looks beautiful and so soft, I hope he finds a mate soon to keep him company.

    Have a wonderful day.

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  2. It's a very pretty bird. You were able to get some very good shots of it.

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  3. I love the way that you have captured him Mary - all that puffing and preening and then having some well earned shut eye. I think that he is hopeful that someone will notice how handsome he is looking.

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  4. Beautiful photographs Mary, as always .... you take some wonderful images. We get the odd dove but mainly lots of fat pigeons waddling all over the garden ...,. They can be rather annoying !!! I’m off out into the garden now ..... it’s the hottest February we’ve ever had ! XXXX

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  5. Exquisite photos reminding me that I still want a coat that looks like those feathers. 🙂

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  6. Your mourning dove is quite beautiful! Then again you take beautiful pictures of them too.

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