Recently, birders in the area had been discussing a pair of birds that had been found coming to a feeder near Boundary Bay in Delta. The birds were Eurasian Collard-Doves, a kind of dove that we don't normally get in these parts.
Now, I'm a good southern boy, and, like any good southern boy, I'm very fond of my greens. It doesn't matter what kind—kale, spinach, mustard, collard, whatever—I like them all. So when I heard that there were collard-doves, I just had to check these birds out. They sounded like fine, upstanding, model bird citizens to me.
I had been out looking for these birds once before, but didn't find them. This time, though, I got the directions right, and when I drove up, I found one of the doves walking around inside the very feeder that was mentioned in the directions. |
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| The other dove was perched atop another piece of bird architecture; said construction was facing the other way, and I couldn't tell if it was a nest box or another feeder. |
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| He didn't stay there too long, though. |
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I was taking these shots from the roadside; I hadn't gone onto the lawn where the feeder and house was, as it was clearly private property. As such, I didn't get any really close photos of the birds.
Here's one on a wire. |
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I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any collards growing anywhere nearby, and that the birds seemed to be picking seed from the feeder, not greens.
I was a little mollified when they came over to a closer tree. Although the tree had a lot of branches, which got in the way, I was still able to get better detail than I got in the more distant shots. |
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| Here's a more-obstructed view of them that shows one of their important field marks: the little black line on the back of their necks. |
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When I got home, I was terribly disappointed to find out that this little black line is called (for obvious reasons) a collar, and that my doves were Eurasian Collared-Doves, not Eurasian Collard-Doves. Go figure. Sure takes my opinion of them down a couple of notches.
I mean, what do these birds have against collards, anyway? Collards are fine green vegetables. Some of the best eatin' in the world. Just goes to show how crazy doves are...who needs 'em? I'll tell you one thing...I'm not chasing after them again anytime soon. Hhmph!
Back before my disappointing discovery, while I was still out in the field and deluded about the doves, I turned my attention to an eagle perched on a pole just down the road. This particular eagle had impeccable personal hygiene, and as a consequence was able to make and keep numerous friends amongst the starlings. |
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| But this fellow on the cross-street hadn't bathed in a week, and his social life clearly suffered. |
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Some eagles just don't have a clue.
I drove around on the streets near the bay, finding a few more local birds, who I shot from the driver's seat of my car. This fellow is a White-crowned Sparrow. He sat still for a while... |
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| then he went running up the branch. |
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| This one is a House Sparrow, and he's got some sort of orange seed or berry in his mouth. |
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| At a field with some Trumpeter Swans, I stopped the car and got out to take photos of the big birds. |
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| There were some nice brown mushrooms growing beside the road there. |
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But my main mission of the day had been to find the Collard-doves, and with that (and a little touring) accomplished, and with the day on the wane, I decided to go on home.
I did stop once more for photos, though, when I came upon some blueberry fields beside the highway. The red and orange stalks were just too vivid to pass up. |
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| For this one, I drove down to the next exit and turned around so I could take photos from the other shoulder of the road. As you can see, the sun was already pretty low. |
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Despite the disappointment over the doves not really liking collards, they had been a lifer for me, so eventually I was satisfied with having gone to see them. It had been a pretty decent outing, considering it was December and the days were pretty short.
Missing my greens,
Tom
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