In the hood.
Always vague – like The Wizard behind the curtain.©
His soft voice commands attention.
Whispers.
From the hood.
He’s out there. Seeing things. But won’t be seen with me.
If we pass on the street, he pretends not to know. Wouldn’t be wise.
A “birds of a feather” thing, Fool.
He says I must take what is offered and not ask for more. (USPD/Commons.wikimedia.org)
All strictly on “need to know” basis.
Silent if pressed.
Aloof. Empowered with a clear view.
We meet over eggs in the morning. As they fry.
I with a spatula.
And he after a fresh shower in the sprinkler
“Wait. Did you hear that? It could be him!” (USPD/Commons.wikimedia.org)
The warden of the neighborhood ready for his watch. Perched on the roof next to the stove’s exhaust.
There Undercover Dove loudly coos all the news fit to coo down the vent.
Startled at the sound, the clueless at the table ask “Do you think the kitchen is haunted?”
Messages from the beyond.
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge
“Get back. You’ll blow my cover.” ©
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
we had a haunted house once with a dove-ghost in the chimney… the ghost came out and flew through my living room…. we sadly had a bad exorcist who smashed some of mom’s treasures :o)
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When RC Cat was very tiny, there was a loud batch of ghosts nesting in the chimney of the old house. We kept the glass door shut tightly just in case a new flyer jumped too soon. RC would sit and stare and stare…assuring staff she was only “guarding” and would immediatley let us know if there was an unexpected slip down. Whew, we were glad when they all launched – and immediately replaced the screen at the top. RC fondly recalls “The Spring of Great Amusement”
Oh, Easy, RC is offering to be a better exorcist for you if needed…but we think she is thinking exercist…which between you and I, she’s not great at either. Thanks for scaring up a comment to leave!
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I am not sure what I would do with a guest who didn’t recognize the voice of a dove!
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He’s more of an owl person. Something of a late night hoot. Thanks for flying in with a comment
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Your Undercover Dove’s m.o. sounds suspiciously like the NYT’s motto. Such a smart bird. 🙂
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I’d say it was water gate, but we’ve emptied the birdbath due to mosquitoes. Thanks for the fly by
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Such a beautiful post! Music, in words.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
🙂
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It’s kinda nice having a soft chat in the mornings. Thanks for slipping by and stacking in a comment
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Your morning serenade!
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An unusal Coffee Klatch…but then again there was a lot of German settlements near here originally. The soft dove conversation much nicer than what’s on the morning news these days. Thanks for coo-ing along
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He/she might not be too happy at what you are flipping with that spatula.
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I did worry a bit at first, but Undercover Dove, wise to the moves of hawks, is so philisophical with “everything is somebody’s dinner.Fly while you can.”..I think it was “fly”, not “fry”, although….
Thanks for flipping a comment this way
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We have two of those doves, but they’re too busy canoodling on our fence to be much help. 🙂
Many thanks for the follow.
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When we first moved in here, there was an entire flock that sat around on the fence. So trusting. Apparently the local hawks noticed the line up and begin making regular fly bys thinking it was a dive-through restaurant. The trees have grown up providing better cover and the flock somehow learned to post lookouts on the peaks of surrounding houses. Still around much much more wary dovies now. Whew! Thanks for flying in to chat
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ha! This reminds me of a funny bird story. I am a big fan of submarines and read all I can find on them -fact and fiction. As you would suspect,communicating with a submarine underwater is difficult at the best of times and requires special equipment and works poorly. As a result until the last generation of subs, the boat would have to come close enough to the surface to extend their antenna in the conning tower above the water to connect with satellites for messages etc. This obviously put the sub in danger as it increased the likelihood of being spotted and attacked during wartime. As a result they developed what is called a towed antenna.It looks like a reel of cable that deploys from the rear top of the sub and it has just sufficient buoyancy that it floats to the surface and trails along behind the sub collecting messages etc. It is not visible with the naked eye and it is too thin to show up on sonar, etc. Many towed antennas require the sub be moving and can unreel a good portion of a mile allowing a very deep running sub to communicate without surfacing.
Anyway the Americans were showing off their new super silent and theoretically undetectable submarines at a session of war games off the European coast. They had deployed their new towed antenna and were receiving enemy position updates from satellites and then targeting the opposing forces. Nothing is deadlier in naval warfare than a sub/satellite combination – the best defense being to cut off their ability to communicate. The undersea battle moved closer to shore and the enemy was losing badly when suddenly one of the sub hunting planes dropped a torpedo right on top of an American sub and “killed” it. In a very short time all the other subs had been detected and destroyed and the enemy won the battle decisively against all predicted odds.
When the Admirals had their post event meeting to go over what worked and what didn’t the Americans were incensed and demanded to know how their subs had been detected – suspecting cheating (like a backdoor entrance to a satellite could deliver the exact location of the sub). Instead the opposing Admirals produced high res color photos of a line of 40 or 50 seagulls travelling sideways through the water at 30 mph. What man could not detect apparently seagulls could and when the antennas got close enough to land the seagulls would perch on them with their feet just under the surface and go for a ride. It was a simple matter then to drop torpedoes about 1/2 mile to 1 mile ahead of the speeding seagulls and score a direct hit on the sub.
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Waterskiing sea gulls! Those guys are such clowns…the birds…oh, OK. What a funny story.
Wonder it the gulls got to gulp any sea offerings stirred up by the trolling. Thanks for adding such a laugh
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My guess is that you are bang on Phil – I imagine the antennas stirred up the fish and such and that is why the seagulls were attracted to them. The submarine book I got that from actually had a picture taken during the exercises of the easy riding seagulls tearing through the water sideways. You’d think they would turn to face into the wind but they didn’t – they sat like a row of crows on a power line, all facing 90 degrees from the tow line.
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Who knows what does on in the minds of gulls…they are so flighty?
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How does HRC react when she looks out the window and sees the feathered friends coming and going? We had a cat – Sissy – who would sit in the window wide eyed with her mouth open and let out little squeaks.
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When she thinks no one’s is watching she does crouch on the window seats/ledges with muzzle quivering and small chirps uttered…is it a plot to lure birds closer? Actually this time of year, even with double paned glass, the blinds and curtains are drawn to keep it cooler. If it gets too much like cabin fever, we raise the blinds a bit on the side of the house not getting battered by the sun. RC has to keep moving window to window. Not much moving now except the lizards.
Hope things are lining up for your move – can’t wait to hear about the road trip’s adventures later! Thanks for perching to chat
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Thanks Phil. The trip is being pushed along a bit as i need an operation.
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Well that’s certainly a stumbling block. Checking in on you shortly. Meanwhile keep trucking along and driving those dreams
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Doves first thing in the morning always signal summer for me. Lovely, Phil!
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The rooftop guardian is so chatty in the morning. Quite a nice way to start the day. Thanks for flying a comment over to roost here
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