Just Stop It, Already!

I know I say this about this time every winter, but to the birds: stop it already!

For the last week, my resident male cardinal and numerous Eurasian collared doves have been singing their mating calls. It's only early January, guys! Give it a rest!

Of course, if this summer is like last (and the weather people say it will be) then the best chance of raising a brood is before the heat hits. Last year I remember one or more 100-degree days in April.

Good birding!

Follow up on Doves

In an earlier post on Eurasian collared doves, I linked an article on the expansion of Eurasian collared doves. I just received my Cardinal newsletter from the North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club, and editor Terry McKee found an article from a 2000 Cardinal noting that Verna Pickren saw a Eurasian collared dove in Wichita Falls on January 14, 2000. What a difference a decade can make!

Good birding!

Dove News

Like everyone else, I had a passel of white-winged doves along with a couple of mourning doves at my feeders during the recent snow/ice storm. Surprisingly, I didn't get any Eurasian collared doves; I was disappointed to have no Inca doves come in. The Incas are not very cold tolerant, so I hope they did OK.

A fellow Texas Master Naturalist sent me a Facebook meesage that she had 9 dead mourning doves on her porch and a neighbor had 5. I wonder what's up with that? I didn't have any at my place. Someone also posted on OKBIRDS that they have had a lot of dove deaths, but they were related to the birds being lethargic, sheltering in a barn and being killed by cats and horses.

There was also a post on TEXBIRDS the other day about Eurasian collared doves that had some interesting information about the expansion of that species in the US. Fortunately, the author posted an article on the topic elsewhere I can share with you.

Good birding!

Phantom Gluttons

I haven't been seeing all that many birds at my feeders, as my Project Feederwatch reports will attest, but I am certainly going through the food, especially the mixed seed. I bought 50 lbs of mixed seed just a couple of weeks ago and put out the last of it this morning.

Either I have some phantoms that like bird seed or some birds are visiting when I am not watching. Since the windows to the back and side of the house are not on the side where I have my office and require a trip to look out, that is entirely possible. Judging from the number of white-winged doves sitting on the wires and in the trees when I went out to fill up the feeders, my money is on them.

I can remember when I first moved to Wichita Falls, white-winged and Eurasian collared doves were not uncommon, but neither did one see them every day. How times have changed! Most birders consider both of these doves more pests than not. They travel in large flocks and can eat a LOT of bird seed.

The white-winged dove comes from Mexico and used to be seen almost entirely in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, However, the birds have expended their trange northward, seemingly following the I-35 corridor.

There is some speculation that these birds are out competing the mourning doves and Inca doves. I have great doubt about the Incas as I am sure they tend to eat smaller seed than the much larger White-winged and Eurasian doves. I could see an argument for mourning doves. But I don't have any factual evidence to back that up. The local chapter of Texas Master Naturalists sent in some data on the two populations a few years ago, but we weren't informed of any results of the study, which is unfortunate. There is an interesting set of papers from a Dove Symposium in 2004 that discusses this briefly but comes to no conclusions.

I can remember seeing many more mourning doves in town in years past, but perhaps it merely seemed that way because I wasn't seeing the hordes of white-winged and Eurasian, as I do today. Once you are in the county, the birds are primarily mourning doves.

Good birding!