I've never seen the jumbo bracts on examples here. I was surprised to see what I took to be the original tree at Sonoma Hort. was apparently a dwarf. A propagule from a retail outlet up here has come along fairly nicely, apparently seedling rootstocks used may be invigorating the scions, with more normally sized trees being the possible common outcome. And the one I planted has yet to produce abnormal bracts. So it is looking like the main benefit of planting the cultivar is going to be the early flowering. I planted a second one here (the other is in Island County, WA) so I will be regularly observing two of them on two different sites in future years.

Nice, Lisa. I like Mourning Dove,too. Sorta off topic, but I saw a cardinal feeding a little brown bump of something in the orchard yesterday. I was walking my little senior pup and the cat always has to come with us. Well, I hurried ahead and scooped up the baby cardinal and placed he/she in the tall grass before Kitty spotted it. The baby made a big fuss and spread its wings to try and scare me, I felt bad. The adult hovered nearby so I'm sure it knew where it was.

Talk about bringing back memories. When I was taking care of orphaned birds at Florida Audubon, mourning doves were the number one babies brought in. Even more than mockingbirds. Why? Because mourning doves build the crappiest excuses for nests you've ever seen! Usually just a few flimsy sticks shoved together, with plenty of gaps. The eggs and babies fall out all the time. I guess it's nature's way of making sure mourning doves don't take over the planet! I've raised more babies like these in the picture than I can possibly remember. And in those days, they didn't have a commercially prepared formula for them like I think they do today. Gary is exactly right. All members of the dove family start their chicks with pigeon's milk, regurgitated from the crop of parent. In my day, we had to mix up a concoction of mashed hardboiled egg yolk and canned milk with vitamins, etc, added. Then we put it in a plastic bag with the corner snipped off (like a pastry tube) and the babies would stick their beaks inside and drink it down. It was a royal pain in the neck, but it worked, as the babies thought they were feeding from a parent's mouth that way. They know much more about saving orphan birds today and have better products and formulas available than what we had to make do with. But it is still an enormous job, and with most birds, it only makes US feel better to save them. Most of the songbirds brought in are not in any real danger of decline, but most PEOPLE don't want to see the babies die. So bird folks are still out there saving them, and I can't fault them for that. I did it, too, and would do it again if I had to. Of course, sometimes certain species are at a point when it would be criminal NOT to save every single bird possible. And for me, the whole experience was interesting and educational, and I learned a LOT about birds, wildlife, and the vagaries of Mother Nature. Marcia

Like Claire, all winter (and last) I've had Mourning Doves clustered underneath my bird feeders, enjoying the seeds that more airborne birds dispel. When my dogs run outside, the doves grudgingly fly up while complaining with their creaking noises. They come back down soon. I wish I had lots of cardinals and robins. . . have only a few, but I am so glad to see them. The robins particularly seem like Spring.