Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Mountain View Apartments, Ajo, Arizona, United States of America

The Ground Dove died today
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I found her (him?) next to the water dish I put out for the birds, near the front door to the apartment I'm renting.

I had topped up the water dish this morning. I saw the ground dove come out from the wall of the apartment building this morning; she used to sleep against the wall, for safety probably (I saw a coyote in the parking lot yesterday evening). She looked at me, gave a little quick motion of her head towards the other side of the parking lot, then continued walking, tenuously, slowly, in that direction. (I put a bird feeder near the picnic tables on the far side of the parking lot, and lots of birds hang out there.)

I think she wanted to go be with the other birds. She knew I always (when I'm home) spread birdseed next to the wall near my door for her (and some of the other birds that hang out there).

She had trouple making it across the parkig lot. I saw her stop and fall forward on her chest a couple times, resting her head on the ground. She had also been tail-pumping recently, and opening her beak on each breath. She seemed to have trouble shelling millet and sunflower seeds, massaging them for several seconds in her beak before the covers popped out and she could swallow the seed inside. When she succeeded, she would have a look of happiness in her eyes. Thus, she was still enjoying eating. She still had a will to live.

Later in the morning I walked over to the picnic tables to refill the bird feeder and spread some seeds on the ground and on a rock that the smaller birds like to sit on. I looked for her but didn't see her.

I spent some time sitting at the picnic tables watching the birds feed, and talking on the cell phone.

When I walked back across the parking lot to the apartment door, I saw her lying next the the water dish. Her eyes were open, her beak parted. She was not moving or breathing.

I put her in an empty cereal box and took her over into the small wash just beyond the picnic tables. I placed her in the shade of a Palo Verde tree.

I think she was showing gratitude for the water dish, acknowledging the attention I was paying to her in her last days. I couldn't cure her; I could only show her love, and try to provide seeds and water for her and the other birds.

http://subbot.org/misc/pictures/ground_dove_ajo.JPG
http://subbot.org/misc/pictures/ground_dove_ajo2.JPG
http://subbot.org/misc/pictures/ground_dove_ajo3.JPG

See her pretty colors? The blue around the neck, the distinctive black spot on her neck under her eye, the white feathers on the underside of her tail.

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Mortality. Reincarnation?