My beloved white-winged doves

The beautiful white-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica) is one of my favorite migrant birds. They spend the cool months—from October on-- in Mexico and Central America, then come up here just ahead of the saguaro bloom (late March to early April). One of the great iconic sights of the Sonoran desert is a white-winged dove atop a blooming or fruiting saguaro.

White-winged dove on saguaro at dawn

A lot of folks I know, including fellow docents at Tohono Chul Park don’t like white-wingeds because they are noisy (“Who Cooks For YOUUUUUUUUU!”), ubiquitous, and messy. To me, the sound of their calls is a comfort, a harbinger and and a musical accompaniment of summer in the desert. They are frequent breeders, so there are a lot of them, and they’re big birds with big scats. I find them sweet and endearing.

White-wingeds are wonderfully devoted parents. In a post last year I described in detail the arduous and ultimately heartbreaking nesting adventures of a pair at the Park.

More recently, a pair successfully fledged a pair of dovelets in our carport.

They are at it again, using the same nest. When the babies fledged, one apparently wasn’t quite ready, and the two spent their first night of freedom huddled motionless on a wall outside our bedroom patio. I was afraid a predator would get them, but found them in the morning atop the water-heater closet:

I haven’t seen them since, but I recently read that white-wingeds are known for staying together with nestmates and other family members, sometimes for life, so perhaps they are taking care of each other, wherever they are.

This is one of my favorite white-winged pictures. This bird was cooling his feet on a hot July day on a cactus fountain at Tohono Chul Park:

                                                                                 

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Spring Changes in the Park

The whole front of Tohono Chul Park is being re-done. I previously wrote about the new Palm Canyon habitat on the left side; here’s a look in-progress at changes on the left (south) side, where the old entrance used to be.

It is a little hard for me to picture what it will look like when it is finished, but so far, though I miss some of the desert vegetation that has been removed, the new walls and walkways seem to open things up, and somehow the front of the Park is now looking much bigger than it used to.

Buckets with drip lines have been placed in many of the walls; presumably beautiful plants will grow in them.

 

 

 

 

Below are a new curvy wall and the old path, both west of the Overlook:

Other new things in the Park:

The first trichocereus of spring, in the Greenhouse

 

 

 

 

 

The first white-winged dove of spring; so happy to see my beloved white-wings are returning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, a sweet mama hummer in the nest she built underneath a lamp on the Bistro patio!

Technorati Tags: Tohono Chul Park,white-winged doves,trichocereus photos

Spring has sprung

It is truly spring in the Sonoran Desert.  The Park is lush with flowers of every color.

    

   DESERT BLUEBELLS              FIRECRACKER PENSTEMON     PARRY’S PENSTEMON

Birds are courting, building nests, mating, and in some cases raising young.  One Anna’s hummingbird nest in the parking lot has already produced two fledglings.  Another Anna’s nest has two ready to go.  The mother is running herself ragged providing insects for her babies.  The other day I saw a male Phainopepla  tenderly feeding a mistletoe berry to his beloved.

                               

         This male Costa’s hummingbird flew right into the picture while I was photographing some of the flowers!

Most exciting for me is the new Cooper's hawk nest in the riparian area. It looks like a very large pile of very large twigs—as if, said one of my fellow docents, it had been built by giant mourning doves.

Technorati Tags: Tohono Chul Park,birds of Arizona,Costa's hummingbird,desert wildflowers,Parry's penstemon,firecracker penstemon,desert bluebells,Cooper's hawk