Country Ecology: Mourning dove

The mourning doves I have been watching are continuing to coalesce in the dead elm outside my living room's window. I sense they are now beginning to pair up, because they are in groups of two's, and cozying up to each other as they roost. At times, they surprise me with their presence, because they are surely demonstrating they like staying around this area of New Hampshire. With this past winter's mildness, the doves remained with us through this season, and that is unusual. Some mornings, they were on the ground, pecking at the sunflower seed fallen there, and once in a while, they have even alighted on the hanging feeder I have near the window. There, they gather up the "Meaties" sunflower chips. They don't forget where good food is.

In winter, mourning doves prefer average minimum January temperatures greater than 10 degrees Fahrenheit; Rocky Mountain, Great Basin, and Great Plains birds may migrate to escape the cold. Mourning doves always require a source of water; thus, peak abundances occur near rivers. In arid areas, large flocks visit water sources at dawn and dusk. Mine sometimes were enjoying the open leads of the snowpack over the Bearcamp River's surface, to get at the water.