The Mourning Dove is a common bird found across most of North America in both city and suburban areas. Most of them do not migrate and are resident year round. They don’t mind people and will nest around humans and come to backyard feeders, although they prefer to eat on the ground.
I have a hanging platform feeder that they like so they are often in my yard. They love the millet and the cracked corn and will sit in the feeder for long periods of time sometimes falling asleep there.
Last week I noticed a pair of doves with a newly fledged youngster at the feeder. That’s him or her on the right.
The parents flew off and the baby stayed in my yard most of the day. The next day they brought him back again and then left for the day, apparently thinking my yard was a daycare center.
You may be thinking you’ve never seen a young dove, but most people have, they just don’t recognize the juveniles. Young Mourning Doves leave the nest full-sized and able to fly, although not very well. If you look closely you can see their feathers have a white edging giving them a scaly pattern.
Below is another view of the juvenile on the feeder to the left and one of the parents on the right.
Interesting Facts:
- Mourning Doves raise three broods a year and up to six broods in warmer climates.
- Eggs are incubated by both parents; the male during the day and the female at night.
- Mourning Doves are monogamous and pairs often stay together through the winter.
- Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day, 99% of that is seed.
- The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
City of Women
by by David R. Gillham
Narrated by Suzanne Bertish
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: August 7, 2012
Format: Audio, 13 hours | 10 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Rating: 4½ of 5
Wartime Berlin, 1943. Sigrid Schröder’s husband is away from home, a soldier in the war. On the surface her life appears to be routine. She goes to work, takes in an occasional movie for entertainment and comes home each night to the apartment she shares with her mother-in-law. But the reality is much different. Segrid has secrets. Everyone has secrets.
Segrid helps Ericha, a young woman who she has seen in her apartment building, avoid being picked up by the German authorities. She later discovers that Ericha is involved in an underground group which provides assistance to those being sought by the government, mostly Jewish families needing relocation. Soon Segrid herself becomes involved in the frightening world of the underground resistance, possibly risking her own life.
This is not a story about war or soldiers, but instead is about the people left behind and the choices they make. We experience what it was like for the German citizens that didn’t agree with the actions of their government and how the underground worked to help the oppressed. Do they turn their heads, mind their own business and survive as best they can, or do they take a stand against what they feel is wrong.
Segrid had some tough choices to make. She was not perfect, she had taken a lover while her husband was away, a Jewish lover who was now missing. Should she join Ericha and help the underground, or should she be a good party-member like her mother-in-law and her soldier husband? Food is becoming scarce, bombings of the city are routine and most people live in constant fear of their government and for their lives. People do what they must to survive. Now Segrid must make some difficult decisions and determine who she can trust.
The audio was narrated by Suzanne Bertish, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her tone and pacing was good fit for subject, and at 13 hours the audio was just the right length.
This was not an easy book to read but the story was compelling and held my interest in spite of the often dark subject matter, desperation and sadness of the tale. Readers/listeners will enjoy this book for it’s richness of detail and excellent character development. World War II historical fiction fans will definitely want to add this one to their collection.
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Source: Review copy.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Thanks to the publisher, I have two copies of The Malice of Fortune a novel by Michael Ennis, to give away to readers with a US address. I am looking forward to reading this historical thriller set in Renaissance Italy and will have a review later this fall.
Following is a summary from the publisher:
Malice of Fortune
by Michael Ennis
Genre: Historical Thriller
Publisher: Doubleday
Publish Date: September 11, 2012
Format: Hardcover | 416 pages
About the Book
Against a teeming canvas of Borgia politics, Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci come together to unmask an enigmatic serial killer, as we learn the secret history behind one of the most controversial works in the western canon, The Prince…
When Pope Alexander dispatches a Vatican courtesan, Damiata, to the remote fortress city of Imola to learn the truth behind the murder of Juan, his most beloved illegitimate son, she cannot fail, for the scheming Borgia pope holds her own young son hostage. Once there, Damiata becomes a pawn in the political intrigues of the pope’s surviving son, the charismatic Duke Valentino, whose own life is threatened by the condottieri, a powerful cabal of mercenary warlords. Damiata suspects that the killer she seeks is one of the brutal condottierri, and as the murders multiply, her quest grows more urgent. She enlists the help of an obscure Florentine diplomat, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Valentino’s eccentric military engineer, Leonardo da Vinci, who together must struggle to decipher the killer’s taunting riddles: Leonardo with his groundbreaking “science of observation” and Machiavelli with his new “science of men.” Traveling across an Italy torn apart by war, they will enter a labyrinth of ancient superstition and erotic obsession to discover at its center a new face of evil—and a truth that will shake the foundations of western civilization.
About the Author
MICHAEL ENNIS taught art history at the University of Texas, developed museum programs as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and worked as an independent curator and consultant. He is the author of two historical novels, The Duchess of Milan and Byzantium. He has written for Esquire and Architectural Digest, and is a regular contributor to Texas Monthly. He lives in Dallas with his television producer wife, Ellen, and their daughter, Arielle.
Giveaway Information
Giveaway is open to those with an address in the US only. To enter, fill out the form below on or before September 5th. For an extra entry tweet or blog the giveaway prior to 9/4. I will draw a random winner who will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
[Contest has ended]
Winners: Liene and Stephanie W.
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Source: Review copy.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: Same sunflower taken at 8am each day. On day seven the Goldfinches began to eat it.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
On September 13th Sheila, at BookJourney, will be hosting an all day Bel Canto read-a-long party with an online discussion and prizes to win.
Bel Canto has been on my reading list for a while now and this is just the motivation I need to finally read it. As usual, I don’t have time to read yet another print book this month, so I will be listening to the audio.
The read-a-long is open to everyone, both first timers and re-reads. There’s still plenty of time to join in. And Sheila makes it super easy to participate, just fill out the form and show up for the discussion and the fun on September 13th.
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© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The July host is Jennifer D @ 5 Minutes for Books.
From the Little, Brown for review and giveaway:
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
From Atria’s Galley Alley for review:
The Color of Rust
by P. A. O'Reilly
Set in the Australian bush, a wryly funny, beautifully observed novel about friendship, motherhood, love, and the importance of fighting for things that matter. Loretta Boskovic never dreamed she would end up a single mother with two kids in a dusty Australian country town. She never imagined she’d have to campaign to save the local primary school. She certainly had no idea her best friend would turn out to be the crusty old junk man. All in all, she’s starting to wonder if she took a wrong turn somewhere. If only she could drop the kids at the orphanage and start over . . . But now, thanks to her protest letters, the education minister is coming to Gunapan, and she has to convince him to change his mind about the school closure.
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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
Share what you read last week and what you are currently reading.
This has been a slow reading week for me. I only finished one print and one audiobook. I don’t know if it’s the weather or just a lack of focus, but I haven’t felt much like concentrating on reading. Perhaps the new wide-screen TV that arrived this week has consumed much of my attention. Moving from old-style square tube analog to HDTV is a real eye-opener. I’ve never been much of a television person but I think movies at home will have a whole new dimension now!
Reading/Listening Last Week:
Last week I finished listening to City of Women, excellent historical fiction set in Berlin during the second World War. I’ll have a review sometime this week.
I also posted a review and giveaway of The Violinist’s Thumb, a science book written in an engaging and lively style.
Reading/Listening This Week:
I’ve just started the new Nicci French novel, Tuesday’s Gone, and I’m currently listening to Earth Unaware, by Orson Scott Card. For science fiction fans, this is the first volume in a new series set in the same world as Ender’s Game, a prequel.
What Are You Reading?
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© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
I have an abundance of baby House Sparrows in my yard this summer. They are very social and adaptable little birds who seem to enjoy being around humans. Especially if those human provide food, shelter, water and natural areas. To the little sparrows, my yard is a five star resort.
A few weeks ago I got to watch them take a dust bath, something I had heard about but never witnessed. I have several bird baths and often see them splashing around in the water, but I had never seen them bathing in the dust.
Near my potting table is an area where some dirt spilled and I swept it to the side but didn’t shovel it clean. Soon the sparrows were flapping their wings and rolling around in the fine dry soil stirring up dust. I wish I would have thought to grab the video camera. They were moving so fast it was difficult to capture a clear still shot.
One little guy was on his back rolling around like a dog. They all ended up completely covered in dust. When they ruffled their feathers I could see a poof of dust in the air. After they were done flapping around, they preened their feathers clean. They did this several times over the next few days.
So why would they do this? Especially since I have five bird baths in my yard. The theory is it’s to get rid of parasites on their skin and feathers that water can’t remove. The dust smothers the parasites, such as mites, and also absorbs excess oil. After preening, their feathers are clean. Sort of like using a dry shampoo. Apparently it worked. I haven’t seen them in the dirt again.
Next time your yard gets a little messy, you can always say you are leaving it that way for the birds.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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