Megan L, if you Google 'meaning of ovel' and choose the Collins English Dictionary option, it will give the Hebrew meaning of 'a mourne'r. So presumably, ovelling is mourning.
It also gives the rate of useage over 10,50 and 100 years, and shows the word was much-used during the early part of the 20th Century.

I learned about the N American Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) from my RSPB bird identification book, which says that this bird has a mournful call. It sometimes gets blown off-course and is seen, albeit rarely, in UK.