Mourning Doves

There are a pair of mourning doves that live close by. Every morning they wake me with their cooing. It is a sad, mournful sound, but really it signals nesting, claiming territory and raising young. They like the standing water in front of our house in the cul-de-sac, but every time I creep up with my camera they take off. It's hard to get a close up, but this one was perched on the roof of the shed and held still for a long time. I wonder where their nest is, and if they are carefully tending their eggs or their young. Mourning doves take turns incubating their nest, which is done continually. The male does the day shift and the female the night shift. Since male and female mourning doves look very similar, it may seem like a dove never leaves the nest. Don't worry, the switch was made when you were not looking.