Location, Location

We have quite a few unique birds here in the valley and I for one know very little about them.  I have a few friends that are quite knowledgeable about birds and their desert habitats but I just like to listen to their songs.  We have one particular bird that has always been close to us wherever we are in Arizona and that is the mourning dove.

Illustration (c) David Allen Sibley

Some people think they are kind of a nuisance and a bit noisy since they, like most of the birds start their "music" at sunrise!  They like to nest in a tree or a shrub, maybe on a ledge and usually with twigs that the male brings the female.  (There's something really right about that plan!!)  We saw all this up close and personal one day this week right out our kitchen window while we were eating breakfast.

The female was sitting on the top of Dean's 4 x 8 trailer that folds in half and he has stored on the patio.  The little woman was sitting so pretty and quiet, like she owned that section of the trailer and once in awhile she would turn, look toward the window like she wanted to see inside and then out over the patio like she was looking the place over.  I guess she really was because soon her mate would show up, bringing her twigs.  Dean could see better than I and he saw him try to drop them in a certain place only to have her move them around to her liking!  He laughed and started mimicking the male, "Look at this pretty twig I brought you and you don't like it."  Then in a high squeaky voice she replies, "I like it, you just didn't put it in the right place!"  

Pretty soon we realized just how much progress they were making on this little "love nest" of theirs and Dean went out to shoo them away.  The female sat for quite a long time while he approached and he almost touched her before she finally moved!  He removed a handful of twigs from the top of the trailer as well as the small well that was formed where the two halves settled together.  She'd flown off and settled just off the patio and was squawking at him the whole time!  We don't know where they relocated but I heard the "coo-ah, coo, coo, coo" this morning so I know they and their friends haven't gone too far! 

I'm sure the robins are back in Iowa and there will be many more new hatchlings soon.  It's that time of the year.  Here we see cardinals, wrens, woodpeckers, hummingbirds and other cacti feeders all winter long and feel really blessed to witness the many wonders of God's creation.  It is truly a wonderful place in our corner of the world.  I hope it is in yours as well.