And Now For a Brief Intermission

 At the moment, we are enjoying a brief intermission from the daily concert we are treated to all day and every day. We've heard the tune before in other places we've lived, but never has the singer been this persistent and dedicated. After doing some googling and listening to various bird songs, we've decided that it's a Eurasian collared dove singing, 'hoo-HOO-hoo' all day long. 

Once or twice s/he has been singing away on a tree branch hanging over the river, but mostly the song comes from somewhere back there:

Other birds, of species unknown to us, sometimes join the chorus and sometimes take advantage of the dove song intermissions to have the airwaves all to themselves. Today we had some stereo sound, because instead of coming only from behind us, there was another dove singing to a slightly different beat coming from in front of us with the other birds singing backup. Maybe it's jazz, which always sounds to me like people playing whatever they feel like, whether it goes together or not.

In any case, our longest resident dove has been out there singing at 6 am (sometimes earlier) for weeks. When I get up 3 or more hours later, the same song is still being sung. Lunch is accompanied by the dove. Dinner, likewise. And for the after-dinner entertainment--you guessed it--dove song. For a few days it seemed like s/he was winding down and getting tired, only singing for a couple hours each day, but today s/he is starting a new week off with renewed enthusiasm and energy and has been singing all day. It seems so quiet when the singing stops.

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