THE PHOTOGRAPH

Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura)

Prevalent year-round in nearly all of the lower 48 states, the cooing Mourning Dove is well known to many. They are frequent visitors to bird feeders and backyards, often eating the seeds on the ground that have fallen out of feeders. They are susceptible to neighborhood cats due to this, although they do perch on fences and telephone wires as well. They are usually seen alone or as a couple, but during breeding season you might even see groups of three flying close together. This is actually a common social display in which the lead bird in the male of a mated pair, the second bird is a male rival, and the third bird is the female of the couple.

Mourning Doves eat up to 20% of their body weight a day, maybe contributing to being the most abundant and highest hunted bird in North America. Yearly, hunters kill around 20 million Mourning Doves, not remotely risking a detrimental impact on the population of more than 350 million. In addition, the ones that escape hunters year after year can live a relatively long time. The oldest known Morning Dove was banded in 1968 and was shot by a hunter 30 years later in 1998.

THE LOCATION

The Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, FL

The Wakodahatchee Wetlands park is located in Delray Beach, FL. It spans across a fifty acre lot, with a three-quarter mile boardwalk that includes multiple gazebos, benches, and informational signage. There are open ponds, marshy areas, mangrove islands for roosting, as well as a wooded area. Formerly utility land, the wetlands were developed as a natural means of managing wastewater. Palm Beach County’s Water Reclamation Facility pumps around two million gallons of water into the park daily. This water is treated, yet still contains excess mineral content. Here in the wetlands the water is naturally purified by the flora of the park and released back into the surface water supply.

Every visit, I see so much life and have yet to be disappointed. Over 150 species of birds have been spotted here as well as turtles, rabbits, and alligators. In the spring you can see large numbers of roosting Wood Storks with their young as well as many young Snowy and Reddish Egrets and Tricolored Herons, stumbling about in the tops of Red Mangroves. Anhingas are ever present, diving for fish or sunbathing atop a perch, wings outstretched. Red-winged Blackbirds chase each other through the tops of tall grasses while Swamp Hens and Gallinules weave through their stems, probing for their next meal.

The FRAME

Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

Bald Cypress, the giant of the swamp, is a stately, slow growing native of the southeastern United States. Very tough, it can adapt to thrive in a wide range of soils, including very briny, salty, and water soaked areas. Able to grow very tall, it has great stability at its base thanks to its “knees.” The tallest known Cypress was about 145 feet tall. All of the Bald Cypress I have used in my frames has come from different parts of Louisiana.