Inappropriate porch activities

Ah, Spring Break. A week of mostly blissful production from my design studio. Ok, my living room converted into a crafting mecca. That being said, my favorite part of the room are the windows that look onto my front yard. My yard isn't the best on the block. We need more gravel, and there are a few weeds that we both drag our feet on spraying. But we do have the best Mesquite tree in the neighborhood, and the birds love it. Yep. I am a bird nerd. I have a hummingbird feeder hanging in the tree, and a seed feeder on the side of the yard that I can see from the room's other window. The cat goes crazy watching this feeder. It brings the both of us non-stop entertainment that I normally miss out on when I have to go to work.

Because I was able to sit in front of said window all week, I have noticed an increase of doves in my yard. This can only mean one thing - mating season. Oh, yeahhhhhhh..... (cue Marvin Gaye music).  Typically, I find a dove's coo quiet irritating. I am more of a chirp and song kind of girl. But I do think it is sweet that they are monogamous and sometimes mate for life, and often go back to their birth place to mate. We have had a couple nests on our property and we try not to bother them. But as a birder, I can't help but try to obsessively see if there are baby birds around. So when I see more doves around, I know that some of those baby birds are all grown up. I know exactly what they are here for. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, they are in my yard because I have provided the perfect environment for them to to do the nasty. Bow-chick-a-bow-wow!

So I don't know why I was super surprised when I was lazily staring out the window, procrastinating my homework, when I saw 2 doves perched on the porch railing about a millimeter apart. "Aww, look how close they are sitting. That's cute," I thought. They were cleaning their feathers, each others feathers, they hooked their beaks together in a crazy kiss, and then POW! Did I really just see what I think I saw? My head was swimming with emotions. Gross! Cool! I am a perv!

Once I got over my initial shock, I couldn't stop giggling. I immediately went on the interent to see if that is really what happened. And it was. Then I wanted to know how often they did it, how long it took for an egg, etc. Weird? Maybe. But this stuff usually only happens on the Discovery Channel, and someone famous is usually narrating all of this important information.  I learned a bunch of great stuff that many of you would find lame, and uninteresting, that I am sure I will get endlessly teased about. So I won't bother sharing since I know you don't care and can look it up yourself. But I will leave you with this, for your viewing enjoyment: