I am proud to say that I have my own personal flock of doves. There are 10, maybe 12 and they are regular visitors to my back yard. They fly in about 7 in the morning, just after I have scattered assorted seeds in the back, and they are delighted to find and eat the millet that the others pass by. I think they eat some of the whole kernel corn that I also distribute, but mostly the crows and the squirrels handle that.
After feeding, the doves fly to one of our bird baths for a drink of water, then it’s off to the tree tops to sun themselves and preen. Often, doves are migratory, many flocks passing through Virginia from the north, seeking a warmer climate. But my little flock is rooted here in the community. They stay put. I had two or three pairs nesting here last summer.
Mourning doves are making a comeback from that severe winter of three or four years back that really took a toll on the local birds. Doves have very short legs and simply cannot move about in the snow to scratch and feed. The vast majority of local doves perished that winter, but they are quite prolific, nesting as many as four times per year. The shallow nests always have two eggs and they hatch quickly. Mourning doves are among the first birds to begin nesting in the spring and are often the last to mop up with breeding duties in the fall.
Doves are routinely seen and found in corn fields, but they often eat more weeds and small grains in the cut fields than the corn kernels themselves.
Doves as a species are found throughout the world in one variation or another. I saw them when we were on a cruise in the Caribbean, and I also saw them last March in Hawaii. The island doves and those in Mexico are much smaller than our local birds.
I enjoy the daily visits from my flock of doves, and it won’t be long until they are once again building nests. Here’s hoping that next year’s flock will be a little larger.
