Tuesday 12 March 2013

LONELY DOVE


LightFeet, the widow-dove of murdered BigFeet2, now spends a lot of time in my office. They were a very close pair, so I expect she is looking to me for the company she misses since he was taken out of the world. She likes to wait on the porch and come inside in the mornings, just as he used to, or in the afternoon if she did not manage that. She eats then settles down on a high shelf for a long semi-snooze, as he did. She always did spend quite a lot of time in here, often in company with her beloved mate, but now she spends noticeably more.

Her behaviour towards me has changed in an interesting way, in that there are times when I am offering her food when she quivers her wings just as chicks do towards a parent when they want to be fed. Perhaps she thinks I'm her Daddy. ;-)

She's going through her annual moult at the moment, so she looks rather moth-eaten, not photogenic, and like all the birds going through that she is eating more. New feathers have to be made, so more food is needed.