by CKR
The doves have been enjoying the seed and cranberry block. Yesterday morning I looked out and there were at least three. And then I looked again: a big light collared dove. Mourning doves and white-winged doves don’t have a collar, and this one was bigger than the two white-wings. It was very shy, but I managed to get some photos.
It looks like a Eurasian collared dove. According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology Feeder Watch Project, these doves are spreading across the United States. This is the first one I’ve seen, but it looks like they are not particularly uncommon in New Mexico. The collar is diagnostic, along with the dark wingtips. The only other dove with a collar is the ringed turtledove, smaller and less common.
Since I’ve lived in northern New Mexico, I’ve seen white-winged doves become more abundant. This may be part of the general movement north of the Chihuahuan desert. The movement of Eurasian collared doves may or may not be related; they are a non-native species that has arrived via cages.
I’m enjoying digital photography for bird identification. If I don’t get a good look at first, I just keep snapping away. Then I can look at the photos at my leisure and blow up the photos.
When I went back to see if the doves had returned after I scared them away, I found another wonderful surprise: my favorite bird, the red-breasted nuthatch. These little guys have typified, for me in New Mexico, the variability of wildlife populations. Some years I don’t see them at all. Others, they have been everywhere. There has been no obvious correlation with weather or anything else. This is the first one I’ve seen this year.
And the scrub jays are more noticeable now that the piñon jays have moved on. They are more or less around all the time, but they had a hard time holding their own against the onslaught of piñon jays.
A pair of English sparrows also showed up recently. There are still many more house finches. It will be interesting to see how the competition betwen the two develops.
My amaryllis has a sheaf of four leaves emerging all at once, with one of the old leaves growing too. No sign of a bud yet.
