Dumdum Dove Nesting
Also some Bacchus toga action
Hi y’all, so glad to be back. As usual, please feel free to share this post if you enjoy it.
I do not want a snow cone in this weather. If given a snow cone I would dump it on my head and lick the syrup while it dripped from my nose.
Who or what is enjoying this weather?
The herbs on my windowsill that I’ve stuffed into glasses to make last, I suspect them of enjoying it.
I’ve never had a kitchen windowsill before.
I’ve just moved so everything is a marvel. That’s why you haven’t been hearing from me, the move and the renovation of the condo and the brief moment of mild homelessness1 (thanks forever to my friend Michèle who took me in) and the unpacking and the increasingly long pauses to marvel at things like the herbs on my new windowsill.
The mint and basil love the sun streaming in through the window 18 hours a day.
The mint & basil don’t mind at all that the charming older couple who sold me the condo wanted to live in ancient Greek and Roman times. They chose colors that looked good by candlelight. They took baths in the ancient cast iron tub and, when at all possible, they eschewed air conditioning.
The previous owners kept the 100+ year old tin ceiling, with its toga-and-grapes-draped Bacchus, and against this background I’ve installed a tiny ceiling fan. My brother then installed a window A/C but the outlet doesn’t work it turns out and the electrician hasn’t been able to come back and fix it yet.
It’s hot as hell in the kitchen right now, a hot house for real with the metal ceiling and the windows all round, and the herbs are loving it.
The previous owners also preserved the dumb waiter that used to bring ice up from the basement but house-to-house ice deliveries stopped some time ago.
I’ve unpacked most of my boxes but haven’t found my ice tray yet.
I didn’t want to live by candlelight so I repainted and changed out the lights. Some have yet to be replaced — they have the old gas lines attached to them, they were originally gas lights, apparently it’s not great to mix electricity and gas? We need to change the location of the lights.
Y’all I’m doing a renovation where I’m adjusting for gas lighting.
My brother installed a window unit A/C in my bedroom and that one works, thanks be to Baccus.
Yesterday I woke up to cooing from a mourning dove.
I don’t know whether she felt the cool air of the A/C or whether she enjoys this whether. I am not sure if I would trust her vote either way.
I love mourning doves — who doesn’t — but any animal that inspires an entire Reddit forum devoted to their “this is fine, probably” approach to nesting (r/stupiddovenests) probably isn’t the brightest.
I started looking into this and found that it’s generally acknowledged that mourning doves are — and this is a quotation from the Mercury News, a newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area — “dumdums.”
We can all agree that they’re charming, but even Cornell Lab’s highly respected “All About Birds” website describes mourning doves’ nests as “A flimsy assembly of pine needles, twigs, and grass stems, unlined and with little insulation for the young.”
“It's the loosest concept of a nest,” said Rosemary Mosco, a science writer and the author of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching.2 Without the presence of eggs, the average pigeon nest could pass as a coincidental aggregation of twigs or jumble of debris. To our human eyes, a pigeon nest looks objectively half-assed. It is a nest that seems to mock other nests.
— Sabrina Imbler, “Why Do Pigeon Nests Look So Shitty? An Investigation,” The Defector, June 28, 2022
While I might not know why they build their nests like that, I’m very aware of why they’re building nests right now. My new place is apparently directly across the ally from some kind of pigeon pay-by-the-hour motel.
I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment and I hope this is some kind of pigeon blessing.
But just because pigeon nests look useless to us does not mean they are useless to pigeons. Most humans, as non-birds, have no relevant expertise in evaluating whether a nest is good or bad. "There's this idea that the whole group of pigeons and doves are notoriously not the best nest-makers, but that's putting our own human constructs on it," said Carlen, now at Washington University in St. Louis, who is one of the few humans actually qualified to judge a pigeon nest.
To appraise whether a pigeon nest is good or bad, you must try to understand the nest from the perspective of a pigeon. As Carlen sees it, a pigeon nest has one ultimate goal: to create an area where the egg will not roll away.
— Sabrina Imbler, “Why Do Pigeon Nests Look So Shitty? An Investigation,” The Defector, June 28, 2022
That’s right, stuff it all of us human nest critics. When have we ever built nests? Never that’s when.
I’ve never built a nest, that’s for sure. I’m mucking about myself, doing my best to build a home for Bacchus and herbs and A/C units and sunshine and cold showers and gaslights. I often feel like a dumdum and also, more rarely, like a genius. I don’t know how to build a home by myself (with some help); I’m building a home by myself (with some help).
Sweat drips down my face, when I lick it it tastes like syrup, like electricity, like the future.
I’d love to hear your comments about that time you built a nest, or anything else.
Mild homelessness being nothing like the real thing, when you’re out of resources and living on the streets. Still, it’s been a little while since I haven’t been sure where I’d end up sleeping, so, again, I’m eternally grateful to Michèle and her kids for taking me in for what turned out to be not an entirely short stay.
This is an absolutely amazing, wonderful book by the way and one of these days I’m going to devote an entire WanderFinder to it. Or, heck, just go ahead and buy it and find out for yourself.
In the spirit of building things, my husband and I just finished building a wooden swing set with a swirly slide, climbing wall and two swings. The box said 10-12 hours to assemble, but I estimate it took us 18 hours spread out over 2 weeks. It was a labor of love and has paid off in spades so far.
These dumdums are doing something right, they seem to be everywhere. I'm glad you're moved in, and staying cool, and I hope you don't gaslight yourself into thinking having Bacchus on the ceiling is a bad thing.