Mourning Dove in China Valley

Amanda and I both spent part of the morning putting out labels for plants. We both ended up ner the middle of China Valley where she told me about this dove. The bird let her approach to within a few feet and then scurried away leaving a large dove "chick" she'd been hiding beneath her body. By the time I got back down she had apparently secreted her fledgling but still allowed me to approach to within three feet. I'm sure the baby was close but we didn't look.

The two springs I spent in China Valley I encountered post-adolescent doves whose interactions with me consisted of running, hiding, or freezing in an effort to disappear. I don't know this but it seems that while doves are not gallinaceous birds (birds like pheasants, grouse, chickens, etc. that spend more time on the ground than in the air), they behave that way when juvenile. They are great fliers when adult but do seem to have something in common with those "land birds".