Me and the Wildlife

The Mourning Dove and the Duck

  The mourning dove received its name in connection with the plaintive
cooing sound it makes.  I am rather fond of the sound made by a mourning dove, and I find it soothing, which may be something a person would like to hear if they are in mourning.  The bird seems to be everywhere.  That distinctive coo can be heard in more movies than can the sound of any other wild bird.

  On my acreage I spent a great deal of time trying to grow strawberries on what had previously been grassland.  The first part of that strategy was to plant shelterbelts of quickly growing Manchuria elms to break the force of the wind.  The next row about fifteen feet downwind was slower growing but sturdy ash trees, and the last row was spruce trees.  The elms quickly became a thick hedge after a few years, and it became necessary to prune back the lower branches in order to encourage upward growth, and to permit mowing and tillage to control grass and weeds.  Because the lower branches were so thickly grown together, I used a manual pruning saw to cut off a few feet of a branch at a time, until the trunk was finally reached.  I had completed the first cut on one branch when I found myself face to face with a mourning dove on a nest about a foot further in on that branch.  I could understand how stressful the situation was for that bird.  I immediately stopped pruning that tree, hoping that I had not disturbed and stressed the bird enough to cause it to leave its nest.  After that I looked at the nest every few days.  The bird remained there for a few weeks, and then it was gone, hopefully with its brood.

Downwind from the shelterbelts was the prairie grass.  The plan here was to mow the grass, then till the soil, then mulch with a thick layer of straw to retain moisture and control the growth of weeds and grass.  I was in the process of mowing the grass a short distance from the mourning dove tree when a duck flew up, quacking loudly.  I stopped mowing, and got off the tractor to try to find the nest so I could avoid that area.  I did find the nest, but unfortunately I had not stopped soon enough.  I was saddened to see that the tractor had already run over the eggs.  There was nothing to be done, except to continue mowing.