Regifted

My friend Judy does not feed birds because she does not have a place to feed them that is convenient for her sit and relax and enjoy watching them. I, on the other hand, do feed birds and most of the day work at a computer that is positioned in front of a window where I can view several feeding stations. I get great enjoyment watching the birds. I put out sunflower seed, corn, "wild bird seed," and hang wire baskets of homemade "suet" (lard, peanut butter, cornmeal, oatmeal).

The usual suspects in the winter include 4 varieties of woodpecker, cardinals, 2 varieties of nuthatch, chickadees, titmouse, goldfinch, 2 varieties of dove, junco, purple and house finches, yellow-rumped warblers, and some that have slipped my mind.

Judy was given a hanging novelty bird thingy in the shape of a squirrel, which she passed on to me when we saw each other the Monday after Christmas. She told me she was "regifting" it because she knew I would get some use out of it.

The occasional squirrels that show up at the feeder chase the birds away until Richard gets around to shooting them (sorry, squirrel lovers, but they are destructive, evil...), and so I am not surprised that it took the birds a while to start pecking the seeds off it. I think the eyes are made of a cracker of some kind.

While we were eating dinner on Saturday, we heard a loud crash into our storm door. I went outside and found a dove that had died almost instantly. I have taped part of an old feed sack over the glass keep that from happening again.

But in the meantime, since I don’t like to waste anything, I plucked the dove and took out the innards. For obvious reasons the recipes I found call for 2 to 4 doves per person. It fit easily in the palm of my hand.

There are some really creative ways to cook dove, but I didn’t do any of them – just coated it in olive oil, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and put it in the oven on a pan next to lasagna I had put together for Sunday dinner.

I got perhaps 3 bites off the breast and a few bits from the back and thigh. One of my uncles hunted doves and his 3 children have written me about how much they enjoyed eating dove over the years that he hunted them. I can understand why. It was very good.