Well today is a double photography day—yesterday was just one of those days were I couldn’t decide on a picture to share. This was due in part to a bad night sleep, which led to only partially bruising my thumb (by catching it in the door). Luckily the bruise isn’t that bad (so I don’t think I’ll be losing the fingernail), though the tip of my thumb is still tender.

So the first photograph is of a couple mourning doves sitting on the wires in the backyard. These are a common bird species throughout North America, and are also one of the most frequently hunted bird species in North America as well.

Some cool facts about mourning doves:

They can eat roughly a fifth of their body weight per day (which someone has calculated to be roughly an average of 71 calories).

They busily feed when they land—swallowing as many seeds as possible and storing them in their crop (the enlargement of the esophagus). Once they have a full crop, they’ll find a safe perch to where they can sit and digest their meal. So depending on how often they can fill their crop is how often they feed.

They can drink the brackish spring water found in the desert without becoming dehydrated.

The oldest known mourning dove was at least a little over 30 years old when it was shot in Florida in 1998—it had been banded in Georgia in 1968.

Reference: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/overview

The second picture is of several sparrows feeding on the small suet feeder. There are also three other sparrows waiting their turn to feed from the suet feeder as well. Even though it is only August, it seems that we’re entering fall/winter migration already. Birds (even those that aren’t migrating) are feeding off of the suet feeders (when usually they hit the seed feeders). Though some of them might be taking food back to the nest, as some might be trying to raise their second or possible third brood this year as well.

We usually go through a small suet cake every two to three days. During the height of migration (both spring and fall) we can go through them also daily. This is in addition to a large suet feeder that we have, and the three seed feeders as well. There is also two nectar feeders for the hummingbirds.

I’m going to have to try to move our thistle feeder from where it’s been the past couple of years—it’s in the trees but none of the birds seem to care about it. So that is one thing I’m going to try to read up on—the proper place for a thistle feeder in the yard. If they state around trees, well I’ll figure out a different placement than the current one.