Blink or you’ll miss it
Wednesday April 28th 2010, 9:53 pm
Filed under: Wildlife

If things are a bit quiet on the porch, if there are no other doves around, occasionally a mourning dove will start people-watching. I’ll look up and there one will be, quietly observing me at my work: sometimes from the patio–they seem to prefer keeping close to the ground when possible–and occasionally, not very often but occasionally, from the back of the chair.

Where I saw that Cooper’s hawk perched, once. The gray concrete and the gray bird, yes, I can see why it would want to keep a lower profile.

It is, as far as I can guess, the younger ones that tend to do this, but I’ve found that when I return their gaze, when it’s just the one bird and me, no other birdly distractions, (the finches don’t count), I can slowly blink at them.

And they will start blinking back.

Bliiink.

Blink blink blink blink.

They have found a way to get my attention. Sometimes it gets them rewarded with extra sunflower seeds, scattered at ground level.  Hulled, too!  But the time spent sharing a small moment in time, just the blink of an eye, seems to be its own reward to them, and they are quite consistent about copying me.  I find it utterly charming.  Somehow, I matter to a small wild thing that has no reason it knows of to need me.

And life is good.


6 Comments so far
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They, the wild things, know who to “talk” to. You just have the knack.

Comment by Laura 04.29.10 @ 4:01 am

as I was going out the front door yesterday morning there was a dove sitting on my front porch, right behind the (now fading) daffodils — by the time I could go for the camera, he (or she) was gone

I love the sound they make — so soothing

Comment by Bev 04.29.10 @ 7:08 am

Bird-squirrel whisperer… blinker?

Comment by Channon 04.29.10 @ 7:43 am

Amen!

Comment by Jayleen 04.29.10 @ 8:48 am

Ah, you do have a way with animals! But these doves don’t seem terribly bright. I have a window type air conditioner in the den, and the part that sticks outside, slopes down away from the building. A few years ago some doves made a nest on that exterior part, and when the eggs were laid, they rolled off and when splat on the ground. Happened one or two more times, too.

Humor –

From church bulletins:

~ The service will close with “Little Drops of Water.” One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.

~ Next Sunday a special collection will be taken to defray the cost of the new carpet. All those wishing to do something on the new carpet will come forward and do so.

Comment by Don Meyer 04.29.10 @ 9:33 am

I’m going to have to try that, we have quite a congregation of them in the back yard :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 05.01.10 @ 9:29 am



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