The flock of doves that attends our feeder station has become significantly smaller over the winter. Just today I noticed that we're down to just one Eurasian collared dove. He sat looking at his reflection in the glass door for quite some time. I'm probably anthropomorphizing, but he seemed distinctly lonely. Did he lose his mate to the Cooper's hawk last week? Or did she just leave him for a warmer climate? The remaining mourning doves are more subdued than usual, as well. They spend much of their day huddling on the fence or the ground, blinking in the cold gray light. Over the summer we had about 14, but now there are about six or seven. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome of this years' official "backyard bird count" will be.
Addendum: Several hours later, I looked out and there were 27 mourning doves(!) Maybe they'd heard I'd written about them...
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