BIRDS OF A FEATHER LLOYD, BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Blog number   180                                                              01 June 2008

We gots a mourning dove nesting in our nectarine tree in the back yard.  She was out there last year, hatched something that we never got to see because some night animal got it.  Coulda been our cat, Zipper.  This year I'm keeping him inside and when I do let him out, I follow him everywhere and when he gets too close to that tree, I pick him up and carry him inside.  I caught him earlier this year sniffing at one of the eggs.  He's quick.  And sneaky.

We had mourning doves in Sacramento, but they seem more flighty than the ones out here.  Maybe because of a hunting season in Sacramento.  We took my nephew, Mark and his wife, Julie out to dinner at this restaurant that has a cactus garden out back and a museum of desert stuff that the owner inherited (as well as the house that houses the restaurant).  One of the things most fascinating to me was one of those old dynamite plungers that you used to see in those old black and white Westerns.

We four were out back looking at all the different cactuses and Mark says, "Look at this."  He was standing about a foot from a nesting mourning dove at eye level.  I had already passed that cactus, I didn't see the bird.  We stared at it for a while, it stared back.  You really can't see where it's looking because its eyes are solid black.  But you can tell.

Our bird in the back yard is like that.  I mow the lawn right under it, I go out and pick nectarines all around its nest, I go out and look first thing in the morning and several times a day.  Never flies away.  And its nest is at eye level too.

There are two young 'uns.  I saw them a couple of times when the mother left to eat.  They have small heads and great big black eyes and they never move while you are looking.  I have never heard a sound from them, never seen them rustling around.  They are so cute!

The neighbor that Teresa suspects flattened our tire so's she could talk to me had two of these birds nesting in her eaves right after we moved in.  They were right outside the side door of the garage.  I told her about them because I thought she would be excited, but I found out later that they tore the nest down "because we don't want pigeons nesting in the roof tiles."

They came back this year and were looking like they were going to nest again.  This time I didn't say anything, but she mentioned them again - and about them being pigeons.  I told her they weren't pigeons.  She said, "Well, what are they then?"  I told her they were mourning doves and that supposedly they brought good luck.  I made that part up, about them bringing luck.  It didn't help anyhow because the birds are gone and I know they didn't leave without cause.

I once saw a cop show where this lady had a big, big snake on her porch and when the cops captured it, one of them smashed its head and killed it.  Sheesh!  Sometimes humans irritate the shit out of me.