El Paso: Dove Tail Memoriam

Dead dove on UTEP parking lot. El Paso, Texas. March 2017.

Found on the pavement of a UTEP parking lot.

The upright tail. Yellow corn nuggets spilled out of its gullet.

An addition to the carcass gallery:

Silence of the Doves

Yesterday morning I noticed what I wasn't hearing.

I wasn't hearing the constant song of the white-winged dove, a sound I'm accustomed to hearing every day, all day in Alamogordo. 

I know I saw one of the doves yesterday, but no song. 

Where are they?

White-winged dove. Credit: wikicommons

New Mexico: White-Winged Doves

White-winged dove. Credit: Wikicommons

Yes, I know the roadrunner is New Mexico's state bird, but if one were to identify the state bird by population and ubiquitous background sound, it would have to be the white-winged dove.

I love birds and I love to hear them singing. So it has come as a surprise that, like a favorite song that loses its charm after you play it for the 1000th time, and then you begin to feel bored with it, and then irritated, and then take an active dislike to it and never want to hear it again .... well, I'm not at that point with the sound of white-winged doves that are everywhere I go in New Mexico, but let's just say there are moments when I want to say to these doves, "shut. up."

Or play this sound.