Of birds and trees

I’m pretty sure that this is an abandoned bird’s nest, as I have found many similar little nests in the thickets and young trees around the area. This one is located just outside one of my porches, and I am hopeful that the builders will return!

Outside my writing window, there is a lot of bird activity in the supposed-Eastern white pine. Among the bright and the beautiful who roost here, I’ve taken a real fancy to my newest neighbors: a pair of doves.

Now, I’m no ornithologist, but at least I know an eagle from a seagull. While this lovely couple is not the cliché white dove, they have the mannerisms, shape, and coo of doves with which I am familiar. I suppose that until I get myself a book, I can’t say for SURE that they are doves.

In Seabeck we had some amazing doves whose wings crack-crack-CRACKED when they flew about. I could count on seeing them perched on hemlock tops around my house before the sun broke the treeline each morning. As soon as I made too much noise, off they’d fly – crack-crack-CRACK!

The two outside my window arrived a few days ago, after the snow melted. They come by at the same time each morning – around 10 after six – and sit on the same branch. There they preen, coo, twitter, flutter their wings, perform a little affectionate “beaking,” and occasionally get in a little practice with the ol’ one-on-one.

I’m trying not to hope so hard as to scare them off, but today when I saw them playing in the upper branches, I started to get REALLY excited that they might have settled on my tree for their nest-to-be! I should go scatter some of my comb leavings and dog-fur out there just in case!