Mourning dove
Originally uploaded by aghrivaine
The other morning I came out and found this little fellow sitting by the gate. I thought perhaps he was wounded, because he wouldn't fly off when I got close. But he did flutter up on top of my car.
I got close again, really just a few inches away - and I think he's actually just a newly hatched little mourning dove, outside of the next for the first time. It would explain why there's been so much bird-noise in the front yard, of a Spring morning.
I much prefer that to a half-dead mourning dove gasping out his last on top of my car, anyway.