Monday, July 28, 2008

A Bigby Day

Ok, it wasn't a huge Bigby day. But after not seeing anything new for months, it was very exciting to finally add a new bird to my year and my life list.

For the past month or so, I'd been hearing what sounded like a Mourning Dove, but not a Mourning Dove. The song was all wrong. I was curious, but never took the time to try and figure it out. I scanned the area a time or two, but didn't see anything.

Then the other day I was heading out to the Educational Yurt and heard it again. Again I wondered what it was. But this time it was close. Perched on top of a telephone pole. I had a momentarily excited thought that it might be a Eurasian Collared-dove. I had no idea, really how they sounded, but I knew that it had dark neck-ring. Upon closer inspection I did discover that it was, in fact the collared-dove. But to make doubly sure, I looked up its song, and sure enough, that's what I had.

The images aren't great; the sun was wrong. But you can see its neck-ring.

Though they are quite common in other parts of the country, they are still listed as rare in this area. Though that seems to be changing. They are listed as seen pretty frequently on ebird throughout the year here.

2 comments:

Deejbrown said...

Isn't it great to "discover" a new bird and its song? Perks me up every time.

Anonymous said...

I have seen them in Florida but alas we don't have them here. I love seeing a life birds, it is a boost.