Actually the American mourning dove, though it used to be known as the "Carolina turtledove"—turtledoves are a different species, properly speaking, in Europe—but it is a harbinger of spring, and I was woken up by my first one of the season this morning, around 5:00. Also the first one since I learned that it was a mourning dove. I'd waking up to them regularly for years, but thought it must be some kind of owl. It certainly never sounded mournful to me, but erotic. That's all I really wanted to say about it.
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| Zenaida macroura, mourning dove, from John James Audubon Birds of America, between 1827 and 1838, via Wikipedia. |