Friday, May 29, 2009

This is a Mourning Dove that I saw along the banks of the Nissequogue River. When she saw me she walked into the foliage and began kicking around the relative safety of the undergrowth. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn’t spend too much time trying to photograph a Mourning Dove but sometimes a glimpse of a bird (or any animal) can make for a more interesting shot than your basic “field guide” pic. I think that’s especially true in this case. I mean, everyone around here knows what these doves look like and I just looked at a couple of range maps for these birds and it seems they’re nearly everywhere, even in Cincinnati, so neither one of my readers needs to see the whole bird. I like to think that this shot helps make this common, everyday bird seem a bit more exotic. Plus, oh heck, I just plain like this shot.

Incidently, I have absolutely no idea of the exact gender of this bird. I think of  most doves as females, perhaps in the same way that some people refer to cats as “she’s”. I don’t suffer from that particular failing, being the caretaker of cats of both genders, but I do tend to refer to Blue Jays as males, even though I know that at least half of them must be females. I don’t do the same with Cardinals or other birds that are sexually dimorphic. Nor do I find myself doing it with all species of birds in which the sexes are similar to each other. I wonder why that is. I understand the cat thing. Felines move with a grace and ease that just shouts femininity. But why should certain bird species have gender associations for me? I must be a deep and complex person. And the check is in the mail. JK