If you hear cooing around your residence, it's mainly doves attempting to attract females to mate from now until August

Doves will often sit on posts, ledges, utility poles even flower pots to do their mating calls. Contributed photo

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If you’ve heard a lot of coo cooing sounds around your home lately, it’s most likely doves as this is the time  males are attempting to attract female doves for mating and in courtship. They’ll then begin nest building and having the first of up to six broods. 

I’ve had a dove trying to build a nest in one of our hanging flower pots that are void of flowers, which is not unusual. Don’t know if it was the same dove, but one built a nest on my neighbors porch column ledge that is only about two inches wide. But the neighbor didn’t want any mess so he took it down and I haven’t seen it return to that site. 

Unlike robins and cardinals who build sturdy cylindrical nests for example, doves will often build a loose platform of thin twigs that allows the eggs to be visible from below. Doves will nest on branches, ledges, gutters, air conditioner units and flat porch railings. It seems nest quality doesn’t matter, only the breeding pace does. And a dove sitting on a utility wire, pole or home gutter from now through August is almost certainly incubating. When doves take flight, their wings whistle, which is produced by the outer primary feathers – not vocally as some folks think.  

Female doves can have up to 12 chicks per season from their six broods. Fledlging’s are fed crop milk that is not related to mammalian milk. This milk is produced by sloughing off the inner lining of doves’crop, which are cells filled with fat and protein, then its detached. The consistency, it is said, is compared to cottage cheese. It allows doves to breed in habitats where insect protein is scarce as the fledgling’s food is internally manufactured. 

This crop milk is the chick’s only food, but as the chicks grow, the parents will gradually mix in seeds. And both parents manufacture food from their own throat lining. 

Fledgling’s leave the nest before they can fly well. They’ll then spend a day or two on the ground learning how to feed themselves as doves are essentially ground feeders. But this it where fledglings are most vulnerable to predation by cats, especially feral cats, and certain species of hawks. 

While I customarily feature doves during the initial small game hunting season, doves are actually the most abundant small game species. As proof, the bag limit is 15 daily. Plus, doves have the longest hunting season as this past year it was Sept. 1- Nov. 28 and again from Dec. 10-Jan. 3. And for hunters who hunt them, doves make excellent table fare, especially when wrapped in bacon and cooked on a grille. 
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So when you hear doves coo-cooing around your residence, you’ll know what they’re up to. 

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