Coo Ee
Hello! Such exciting news!!!
I have a new pet. A new friend! A beautiful dove has taken up residence on my fire escape, and she's not just any kind of dove, she's a mourning dove! She is light brown, and in the sunlight (which shines directly on the far corner of the fire escape for about 30 minutes max per day - thus why I have no pics of her in the direct sunlight) she has beautiful blue shimmery feathers on the top of her neck and pink shimmers on the side. And my favorite part - she has the most elegant light blue eyeliner surrounding each of her eyes. Gorgeous. You can just barely see it in the pictures below. Her nest is about 2 feet from where my head rests on the pillow when I sleep at night, so every morning I peek out from behind my shade to check on her.
Well, the most exciting thing has happened. She laid two eggs!!!!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I have all my LIFE wanted to watch baby birds being born in the wild. The closest I have ever come was in 3rd Grade science with Mr. Eswine, who hatched duckling eggs under incubators for us to watch and then lead around the garden once they were toddling (((so cute!!))). But this is even more exciting because she's a wild [urban] mourning dove. How beautiful. She and I spend a lot of time communicating through our eyeballs, since all she does is blink (with her blue eyeliner dazzling). I have very accurately figured out how to mimic her call, but since she's been sitting on her eggs she hasn't been calling much at all.
Mourning doves are monogamous birds (although I haven't seen the male around in a while-maybe he's busy at the firm), and once they lay their eggs it takes only two weeks for them to hatch. When the birds are born, they are altricial, which means they don't have any feathers and they can't see. OHHHHH! How cuuuuuuuuuuute!!! I'm going to flip when they're born! I tell you, the one really hard thing for me, as I live in this big city, is that I miss nature. I miss animals, and grass, and frogs, and fish, and red dirt, and turtles, and dolphins, and cormorants, and otters...
But look what's happened! Surely this is a sign that it's not quite time for me to leave this town. I also cannot ignore the fact that it is a mourning dove who has chosen to live on my fire escape and love me! A pigeon would make sense, since there must be a few million in this city, but as far as I know, I haven't ever really noticed that New York has mourning doves! I guess my beautiful Amy, master of birds as well as many other animals, is showing me she's still involved in my life. Oh I love you Edna!
Here are the pictures, GET excited!!!!
Mommy
Babies
Mommy sitting on babies
She's such a diligent mother. She doesn't leave that nest EVER! I have seen her leave the nest twice for about 10 minutes each time sitting across the fire escape, but I haven't seen that fire escape empty since those eggs were laid. What a good mommy! Oh, I named her Coo Ee, by the way. Such a beautiful girl. I love her!
Off to make some music now.
Love,
Luci
I have a new pet. A new friend! A beautiful dove has taken up residence on my fire escape, and she's not just any kind of dove, she's a mourning dove! She is light brown, and in the sunlight (which shines directly on the far corner of the fire escape for about 30 minutes max per day - thus why I have no pics of her in the direct sunlight) she has beautiful blue shimmery feathers on the top of her neck and pink shimmers on the side. And my favorite part - she has the most elegant light blue eyeliner surrounding each of her eyes. Gorgeous. You can just barely see it in the pictures below. Her nest is about 2 feet from where my head rests on the pillow when I sleep at night, so every morning I peek out from behind my shade to check on her.
Well, the most exciting thing has happened. She laid two eggs!!!!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I have all my LIFE wanted to watch baby birds being born in the wild. The closest I have ever come was in 3rd Grade science with Mr. Eswine, who hatched duckling eggs under incubators for us to watch and then lead around the garden once they were toddling (((so cute!!))). But this is even more exciting because she's a wild [urban] mourning dove. How beautiful. She and I spend a lot of time communicating through our eyeballs, since all she does is blink (with her blue eyeliner dazzling). I have very accurately figured out how to mimic her call, but since she's been sitting on her eggs she hasn't been calling much at all.
Mourning doves are monogamous birds (although I haven't seen the male around in a while-maybe he's busy at the firm), and once they lay their eggs it takes only two weeks for them to hatch. When the birds are born, they are altricial, which means they don't have any feathers and they can't see. OHHHHH! How cuuuuuuuuuuute!!! I'm going to flip when they're born! I tell you, the one really hard thing for me, as I live in this big city, is that I miss nature. I miss animals, and grass, and frogs, and fish, and red dirt, and turtles, and dolphins, and cormorants, and otters...
But look what's happened! Surely this is a sign that it's not quite time for me to leave this town. I also cannot ignore the fact that it is a mourning dove who has chosen to live on my fire escape and love me! A pigeon would make sense, since there must be a few million in this city, but as far as I know, I haven't ever really noticed that New York has mourning doves! I guess my beautiful Amy, master of birds as well as many other animals, is showing me she's still involved in my life. Oh I love you Edna!
Here are the pictures, GET excited!!!!
Mommy
Babies
Mommy sitting on babies
She's such a diligent mother. She doesn't leave that nest EVER! I have seen her leave the nest twice for about 10 minutes each time sitting across the fire escape, but I haven't seen that fire escape empty since those eggs were laid. What a good mommy! Oh, I named her Coo Ee, by the way. Such a beautiful girl. I love her!
Off to make some music now.
Love,
Luci
posted at
5:15 PM
