I feed the birds. What can I tell you...I like to see them. So, here the dove family has stopped by for a drink, but no water. Don't you love the photo though? So much life and vibrancy and is that the male in the foreground? Dove weed (Croton setigerus) so prevalent in the west, is in bloom right now and I have a ton of it in my horse pasture. Consequently I have Dove all over the place, on the fences, in the bird bath, on my lawn, around the garden.
When I lived on the ranch, we hunted them in season and I'll tell you they are amazingly fast and hard to hit. My hand-eye coordination is severly lacking in the dove hunting department and I shot up a whole box of shells one day and killed one. It was a very expensive ounce or so of meat and definitely not worth the frustration. By the end of that day I don't know which was dragging farther behind me, my shotgun or my lip.
Now I just look at them...and enjoy them immensely. They make a little squeak when they fly. It sounds like a rusty hinge, but it may be verbal for all I know. Right after I snapped this photo, these guys took off sqeaking as if I was hunting them. I went out and filled the bird bath and hoped they'll come back.
I was just reading up on how to attract mourning doves to nest in my yard/area. This was after finding this site
ReplyDeletehttp://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/challenge/funky-nest-entry-directory
.....which was a lot of fun. The Sunday Stills Challenge this week was also Things With Wings...and I chose a sparrow I found in a strip mall.
http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-things-with-wings/
http://themares.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-sunday-stills-challenge-for-this.html