Spotted this one hiding in our flower bed yesterday when I went out to put bird seed on the feeder. I walked up to within 8-10 ft. of it and it showed no fear of me. I tossed some seed out to it and it began to eat immediately as if used to being fed. All the while it kept looking up skyward as if it was afraid of an aerial assult by a hawk or something else. It ate for a few minutes then hopped up on a decorative concrete border.
Size of a Mourning Dove, definitely smaller than a Eurasian Collared Dove. (I have EC Doves daily at the feeder). Looking in my Sibley's, this Dove looks like a Ringed Turtle Dove. Though out of range for here, I'm thinking it could be an escapee, especially since it was so tame. Notice its white head contrasting with body color, and pale primaries, as opposed to dark primaries on a EC Dove.
Thoughts, anyone?
1-Peyen Road 3-5-13..Collared Dove..Cooper's 3-7-13 018 by littlebear_elder, on Flickr
1-Peyen Road 3-5-13..Collared Dove..Cooper's 3-7-13 028 by littlebear_elder, on Flickr
1-Peyen Road 3-5-13..Collared Dove..Cooper's 3-7-13 019 by littlebear_elder, on Flickr
Peyen Road 3-5-13..Collared Dove..Cooper's 3-7-13 025 by littlebear_elder, on Flickr
Funny story about this bird and it's being so tame.
About 1997, I headed a community project to remove (what turned out to be about 50+ tons or so) of arrundo donax (that nasty invasive, water sucking, horrible, awful creek species that clogs the creeks and drives the native willow etc. out) out of our creeks. I worked for almost nine weeks straight organizing crews of people up to 70 at a time, directing traffic, arm waving (!) and feeding everyone lunch. My leg was in a brace from surgery, so I did the running and organizing for it and helped at the roadside.
Among those who helped was the county's minimum security fire crew for about a week (anything to get outside, I guess). This was excruciating work (especially in the heat) where everything was cut with chainsaw, then HAND delivered up extremely steep slopes via human chain, then put into a county shredder.
Once, the jail crew was near my own home and the ringed turtle doves (we have a population here and have for a couple decades) came down and so close they could almost be touched. The inmates were just wild about these birds and asked why they were so friendly (not knowing they weren't endemic birds.
I just told them this was a pretty magical place (which it is, actually) and that we all just get along. It was nice to see these guys enjoy the wild even if what they were seeing wasn't really "wild".
I heard from the county leader of the group that these guys came both for the food and the birds. How cool is that?
New Birder January 1, 2013
Life list: 178
Orange-crowned warbler, Pacific-slope flycatcher, Swainson's thrush, Red-throated loon, Clapper rail, Warbling vireo, Gray flycatcher, MacGullivray's warbler, Western wood-pewee, Reddish egret, Least tern, California gnatcatcher, Peregrine falcon, Black skimmer, Long-billed curlew, Semipalmated plover, Dunlin, Black-bellied plover, Red-breasted merganser, Cliff swallow, Great horned owl, Blue grosbeak, Yellow-breasted chat, Bell's vireo, Lazuli bunting, Black-chinned hummingbird, Green heron, Nashville warbler, Townsend's warbler, Black-throated gray warbler, Ross's goose, Horned grebe, Marbled godwit, Forester's tern, Brant, Western tanager, Bullock's oriole, Yellow warbler, Barn swallow, Brewer's blackbird, Brown-headed cowbird, Ash-throated flycatcher, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Black-headed grosbeak, Willet, California gull, Western gull, Ring-billed gull, Heermann's gull, Brown pelican, Red-throated loon, Royal tern, Elegant tern, Least sandpiper, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Redhead duck, Greater scaup, Western sandpiper, Least bittern, White-faced ibis, Blue-winged teal, Greater white-fronted goose, Golden eagle, Zone-tailed hawk, Rufous-crowned sparrow, Sharp-shinned hawk, Common ground-dove, Black-throated green warbler (continuing bird), Wilson's warbler, Common yellowthroat, House wren, Chipping sparrow, Hooded oriole, House sparrow, Song sparrow, Cactus wren, Western kingbird, Red-breasted sapsucker, Downey woodpecker, Bullock's oriole, Common poorwill, American robin, Cooper's hawk, Dowitcher sp., Red-winged blackbird, Greater yellowlegs, Common gallinule, Gadwell, Black-neck stilt, Cinnamon teal, American avocet, Cassin's kingbird, Lark sparrow, Killdeer, Pine siskin, Spotted sandpiper, Egyptian goose, Northern shoveler, Hooded merganser, Canada goose, American goldfinch, Lesser scaup
Having a blast!
