Seasonal milestone: first Mourning Dove calling

A few moments ago I went outside to let my dogs into the yard, and sat for a moment on the steps.  The first sound I noticed was the soft coo coo-ooo, cooo cooo cooo of a Mourning Dove, their breeding season advertisement.  The first I have heard for the upcoming nesting cycle.

Okay, so I suppose it is after the solstice, and by that standard we are sliding ever so slightly toward spring astronomically.  But the bald cypress are still not bald- indeed they remain in peak foliage coloration- and the sharpest bite of winter temperatures (however blunt it may be at our latitude) is still ahead of us.  

Every December it strikes me funny when I see the first signs that my local yard birds are beginning to think in terms of nesting, when I am still thinking "ahead" to winter.  

Peter