80AcresOnline

Doves, to some people, symbolize peace. Those people have never watched doves–especially white-winged doves–around other birds. Doves have a habit of “armpitting” other birds (and sometimes one another.) Somewhere in my files I have a photograph of a white-winged dove armpitting a cardinal who dared to land on the same branch.

What’s arm-pitting? The dove showing dominance lifts the wing on the side where the other bird is–the higher the lift, the more annoyed the dominant dove is–and reveals what would be, in a person, the armpit. I’ve seen doves stick the armpitting wing straight up, the wingtip high above the bird, but also lift it less than that.

I’ve seen Inca, ground, and mourning doves “armpit” as well as white-wings. I haven’t seen other species do it (they may–I just haven’t seen it.) Sparrows showing dominance hop towards the other bird, and peck. Mockingbirds extend both wings out a little sideways (not up) and peck. Cardinals threaten with body posture and extended beak.

Armpitting doves look silly while doing it–that one wing stuck up high, while the rest of the bird appears to be calm and composed.

At a town meeting to discuss the new “weeds and trash” ordinance, I stood up for the value of natural “wildscaping” over manicured (and water hogging) lawns, and “nuisance water” rules.

You win some, you lose some. Traditionally, city governments have been told by health authorities that all standing water (bird baths included) are dangerous because of mosquitos, that tall grass and “weeds” (usually defined as any flower you don’t buy at the nursery) are unhealthy and unsanitary because they harbor rodents and snakes. The new ordinance–which our council insists they toned down from the version another town used–treats natural plants in the same way as human-generated trash. “Brush” is one of the things they prohibit.

Brush is habitat. Brush is valuable food and cover for desirable wildlife (and some less desirable, but the same could be said of a town–food and cover for humans, both the desirable ones that bring joy and the undesirable ones who bring misery.)