Sunday, May 31, 2009

Coo

I've been going on lately about my yard; rhapsodizing about the beautiful flowers, the lovely citrus trees, the aromatic jasmine growing outside my door. Apparently I needed to look closer.


No, closer than that.


Can't see it yet? How about this?


Right. Dirty filthy pigeon has not only built a nest at the top of my jasmine, judging from that close-up there's a baby in there too. Or maybe I'm just imagining that lower eyeball and beak. If so, then there will be a baby or two within a few days. Mama is sitting still as a statue, giving me the stinkeye whenever I try to walk outside.

So you say it's could be a dove, right? According to all the sources out there it's the same thing. To quote the easiest source, Wikipedia (because it's most concise there, not because I believe it more than the other places I looked), "in general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the term "dove" and "pigeon.""

Oh well, I guess it's better than turkey vultures taking up residence in my yard.

1 comment:

  1. Funny how "dove" sounds so much more pleasant than "pigeon!"

    I think the columnist herb caen used to call them "rats with wings".

    I don't hate 'em, but then I don't have any living at my house, either.

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