On my drive to work this morning, I noticed two white doves by the side of the road pecking about for food.
This is a rare sight here (rural Connecticut, USA) and not one I’ve seen before.
My assumption was that they’d probably been released at a wedding or other event over the weekend.
That got me to thinking…I’ve never seen a white dove in the wild in this area, but I’ve seen the practice of releasing them at events.
So, what happens to those doves?
I’m assuming they must be domesticated to some extent in order for someone to be able to provide them for weddings, etc.
When they’re released, are they simply “on their own” and able to fend for themselves?
In other words, if they’ve been fed and cared for domestically, can they survive in the wild?
Or, are they somehow collected by the supplier and used over-and-over?
That is absolutely hilarious. all the more so because you know exactly what was going to happen.
I am torn, which is funnier, this or the psycho squirrel?
We released white doves at my father’s funeral. Daddy was cremated, and we had the flag folding ceremony and presentation by the AF Reserve Honor Guard. Momma had died ten years earlier and at Daddy’s request, we kept her in our homes (my sister and I swapped Momma back and forth) until he passed away. Then both were inurned together at the columbarium at Riverside National Cemetery.
Since we had both parents together, the funeral director gave me a brochure about a business providing doves for ceremonies. The lady from the business recited a beautiful poem about “Lovers Reunited,” and then my sister and I, and each grandchild were given a dove to release. Once freed, the doves circled the group of people several times, before departing.
Nice coincidence: the word “columbarium” as an edifice for storing cremation urns comes from the Latin for “dovecote” or pigeon house, owing to their structural similarities with all the little niches.
So releasing doves at a columbarium seems like an especially appropriate thing to do.
Trust me, I have loads of BOTH doves and pigeons here, they’re NOT the same thing at all, in ANY stretch of the imagination.
I’ve spent nearly 5 years in the Middle East, they have DOVES, not pigeons. Period.
The “dove” was dead on launch, hence the massive back stroke of its neck before launch. Probably squeezed to death by accident.
Unless you want to say that chimpanzee and humans are the same creature…
I had no idea that a columbarium is a place to store cremation urns - only knew the dovecote definition and was wondering why would a cementery have one. Ignorance just took a hit.
Definition of PIGEON
1: any of a widely distributed family (Columbidae, order Columbiformes) of birds with a stout body, rather short legs, and smooth and compact plumage; especially : a member of any of numerous varieties of the rock dove that exist in domestication and in the feral state in cities and towns throughout most of the world
Definition of DOVE
1: any of numerous pigeons; especially : a small wild pigeon
"In general terms “dove” and “pigeon” are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for “dove” to be used for smaller species and “pigeon” for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms “dove” and “pigeon.”
True, as well as better habits. Pigeons tend to gather in large groups, doves tend to gather a small family group.
The difference there is notable in urban environments, largely by the mess…
