A cozy sheltered spot this be,
A perfect place to eat,
Did someone put out food for me,
Or is the spread deplete?
I think I saw some feeders hang
From underneath this roof,
But I would fall down with a bang,
No thank you, I’m no goof.
I feel much safer on the ground,
I’ll pick up fallen seeds,
I’ll tidy up the mess around,
And satisfy my needs.

A janitor! That’s what they need!
I help to keep things neat,
By eating every messy seed,
That falls right at my feet.
*** In case you’re wondering what this lovely bird is, it is a Eurasian collared dove.


April 4, 2026 at 10:55 am
A wonderful poem, Anneli! I thought the bird was a very light coloured Mourning Dove of which there are plenty of here. It’s lovely! I used to get thirty or more Mourning Doves on my block fence every eve but since the Cooper’s Hawk has taken two of them they don’t come in such numbers now. Maybe two each eve just before dark…
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April 4, 2026 at 11:56 am
Similar but they’re not mourning doves. They’re quite a bit bigger actually. Too bad about the hawk. I suppose they have to eat too, but why can’t they eat pizza, or grass, or…?
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April 4, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Ha, I’d love to give the hawk a pizza! 😂 I saw the hawk just once, got the photo and shared it with my sister, a life long birder. An internet search proved it was that specie and all I found twice was a bunch of feathers on the faux grass in the backyard. 🤭
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April 4, 2026 at 1:45 pm
They like their meat rare.
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April 4, 2026 at 2:13 pm
😂👍🏻 Super, extra rare.
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April 4, 2026 at 11:12 am
Beautiful photos of the beautiful dove. I love the poem.
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April 4, 2026 at 11:57 am
Thank you, Mags. Have a great weekend.
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April 4, 2026 at 12:31 pm
Thank you, you also have a great weekend.
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April 4, 2026 at 11:26 am
We saw these doves down in Mangawhai, New Zealand. They were more in the wild, but I have no doubt that doves close to feeders would be opportunistic. After all, a dove is just a fancy pigeon. Happy Saturday Anneli. Allan
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April 4, 2026 at 11:54 am
These doves have been migrating gradually from around the southeastern part of North America and are working their way north, but I think they’ll get tired of our cold winters and stay where it’s warmer.
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April 4, 2026 at 11:35 am
Lovely poem and pictures, Anneli. I like hearing the dove calls.
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April 4, 2026 at 11:52 am
Thanks, Lynette. I do too. It reminds me of warmer days in Mexico.
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April 4, 2026 at 12:29 pm
Your garden is coming along. That’s a lovely bird, we should be seeing mourning doves return here soon.
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April 4, 2026 at 1:14 pm
I am so grateful that the dove is keeping it clean by eating seeds. Our dog keeps the floor clean too by eating. It is a fun and beautiful story-poem. It is a beautiful bird. I think it is the dove that is called forest dove (skogsduva) in Sweden.
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April 4, 2026 at 1:44 pm
LOL We have one of those floor-cleaning dogs too.
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April 4, 2026 at 2:36 pm
Ha ha they are fabulous
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April 4, 2026 at 1:32 pm
I like your diversity hire, aka janitor. 😊
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April 4, 2026 at 1:42 pm
Highly skilled in many arts.
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April 4, 2026 at 4:58 pm
😊
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April 5, 2026 at 8:26 am
Those doves, are so pretty and useful with cleaning up under the feeders. The doves which come in my garden clean up too but are not so pretty. Happy Easter to you all and thanks for the nice little poem.
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April 5, 2026 at 8:41 am
I guess they all have their own kind of beauty. Anyway, they sure clean up on any dropped seeds. Happy Easter to you too, Ursula.
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April 5, 2026 at 9:57 am
What a charming little story – it really made me smile 😊. Your turtle dove comes across as wonderfully pragmatic: better to enjoy a safe meal on the ground than risk a dramatic fall from the feeder – a very wise life philosophy! I especially love how you give her this quiet, slightly thoughtful voice. One can almost see her pausing, evaluating the situation, and then calmly deciding, “No thank you, I’ll stick to the down-to-earth option.” There’s probably something we humans could learn from that 😉.
Such a lovely and observant piece – these small everyday moments, told with care, are a real joy.
Warm regards….. Rosie from Germany
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April 5, 2026 at 11:13 am
Thanks for reading my janitor’s eating adventure story, Rosie. I like to imagine what animals are thinking and saying. For sure they are thinking something. Look at our dogs and cats, how they behave. They must have some thoughts and ideas. We just can’t understand them all. We can only guess. And that’s where our fun begins.
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April 6, 2026 at 2:48 am
🫶🌸
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April 6, 2026 at 7:09 am
Collared doves are common in the UK. They have a gentle oo-OO-oo call that some people mistake for a cuckoo in spring, although it’s not really like cuck-oo. At least I don’t think so. It has three syllables,not two, for a start!
What a lovely poem, too.
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April 6, 2026 at 10:25 am
Thanks, Vivienne. I think you’ve got that call spelled very well. That’s just how they sound. I don’t think we have cuckoos here so we can be pretty sure it’s a dove when we hear that sound.
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April 6, 2026 at 2:05 pm
One clever bird. 🙂
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April 7, 2026 at 1:43 pm
Anneli, thank you for sharing your gift of poetry. The dove seems quite taken up the assignment at hand. Indeed . . . nature supplies a janitor when needed.
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April 7, 2026 at 3:49 pm
A place for everyone.
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April 7, 2026 at 1:46 pm
Smart bird. Waste not want not!
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April 7, 2026 at 3:49 pm
And it helps clean up the seeds that fall all over the place.
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April 7, 2026 at 2:51 pm
Beautiful poems and photos! Thank you for sharing.
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April 7, 2026 at 3:48 pm
Tnx. Lots of fun.
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April 9, 2026 at 5:36 pm
I enjoyed this story!
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April 9, 2026 at 8:41 pm
Thanks, Jennie. I love it when the animals talk.
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April 10, 2026 at 4:34 am
😍
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April 10, 2026 at 4:08 pm
Beautiful dove and photos, and I love the cute poem, Anneli!
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April 10, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Tnx, Lauren. I like seeing them here, as long as they don’t eat everyone else out of house and home.
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April 11, 2026 at 12:33 pm
That explains why those doves are always on the ground underneath our bird feeder. I love their coos. I’m surprised when sometimes Mr. and Mrs. fly up to our deck and sit cozy together looking out at the world. By the way, I gave you a shout out in my latest post (in a comment).
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April 11, 2026 at 7:33 pm
Thanks, Pam. I’m surprised to see your comment, saying you gave me a shout out in your latest post because I haven’t seen a post from you in ages. So I went looking for your blog posts and I see that I had been kicked off your “followers list.” I clicked to go back on it, but I couldn’t find the comment you referred to. I don’t know what’s going on with WP sometimes. I’m so sorry I’ve missed your posts!
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April 13, 2026 at 8:11 am
Oh noooooooooo. I’ve heard that Word Press does that sometimes – kicks off subscribers. I don’t know why. Urghhh. Looks like you found my latest post, though. Thank goodness. Big hug to you.
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April 13, 2026 at 10:19 am
If you hadn’t commented on mine I would have continued to think that you’d given up on it. So glad we could reconnect! Sending you hugs back.
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April 14, 2026 at 11:22 am
xoxo
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