Sun-soakers of December: Two turtle doves and ------

Mourning doves and a white-breasted nuthatch on the the dead limb of apple tree.
photos by Jonthan Schechter 

"On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree ---"

It's hard to have a radio on now without hearing the timeless jingle of 12 Days of Christmas.
My front yard has an old hollow apple tree with dead upper branches, branches I will not cut for
they are feeding grounds for woodpeckers and nuthatch and sunny perches for mourning doves.
I doubt I will find  french hens or a partridge in my front yard fruit tree - I do keep checking - but hardly a day passes in December that I don't find the mourning doves facing the late
afternoon setting sun, for that it is their way.
Yesterday a small flock of turkeys scrounged  about under the tree. I told them to leave for
 they are not in the jingle. 
They trotted back to the woods.