Vogel made her first coos this morning as I sat at the computer. She was perched above me on the ceiling fan looking down at me when she cooed, but I was more alarmed by how loud the coo was and that she even made a noise. But was that her? A few minutes later she coooed again, and her expanded chest was the proof that she can indeed make a noise.
This was newsmaking.
I was so excited about this news that I went to tell Kevin in the kitchen, who was about as excited about that as he is about football. Could this mean that Vogel, though, is a boy and not a girl? In the dove world both sexes coo, although the males coo louder than the females.
Her chest feathers are growing in although there's still an open area around her chest. Her tail feathers are now 1.5" long, which helps her with her flight but still isn't enough to make her fly long. However, she's looking happy and healthy otherwise and should be ready for release in a few months.
It's been a nice spring weekend. After yesterday's hike I did nothing at home, but today I did some gardening. The best stuff will happen later in the month when I prep the garden beds and prune all the dead branches off my shrubs and fruit trees. I noticed today that my aloe vera died from last month's freeze.
The shrubs are blooming, so are the trees, and the birds are coming out to chirp, gawk, caw, whistle and coo outside my window. I had to open my office window to allow Vogel better audio of her feathered friends. Although the East got more winter weather this weekend, we are clearly into spring now.
And although I'm in the middle of my semester (and not doing so well in my Biology class), I'm having plans of spending part of the summer in Indiana before I drive back through Texas, perhaps visit some friends during a high school reunion before arriving back in AZ only to head back up to California to meet up with Mary for another stint on the JMT. Gasoline prices are scaring me, however. They shot up over 20 cents here in ten days. I paid $3.41/gallon on Friday.
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