Hi Tweets,

Does anyone know of any instances in which Rock Doves (RODO) have taken up
residence on sea-cliffs or any other wild area in Cascadia?

Only place I know of outside city and farm is on an enormous red rock (a
pint-size mountain, really) in the Dry Interior of BC, with a sheer
vertical 250-300 meter (apprx 800-1,000 ft) cliff face. It stands by itself
in the middle of an irrigated river valley a few kilometers S of Clinton BC
on Hwy 97. Lots of ledges and overhangs, and nothing for quite a ways that
would seem typical feral RODO habitat.

Scoping from the highway shoulder a few years ago my boss, Ken Winters, and
I were looking for some slightly out-of-usual-range White-throated Swifts
that had been reported there several years before. A flash of motion
alerted us to a Rock Dove flying to a ledge about 2/3 the way up where
there was another RODO; a third bird, presumably an unfledged young bird,
came out to join them. As far as we could see (at long range and high power
with some heat shimmy), no other RODO's were on this huge cliff, though a
plethora of suitable nesting ledges existed. Interestingly, and perhaps
significantly, all three birds -- so far as we could tell -- were wearing
the ancestral white-rumped grey plumage.

The swifts? Well, we didn't see them, but we did see at least five or six
pairs of Violet-green Swallows (definite, though not an easy ID at that
distance, and would have been *very* hard to someone without the extra
high-end power of the Kowa or one of the other 70+mm scopes) flying in and
out of nesting crevices high up on the cliff. And one opportunistic little
kestrel messing around on the thermals and currents along the cliff-face,
occasionally pitching at a swallow (nope, wasn't a Prairie Falcon: down,
boy).

As part of the discussion of 'alien' species, it seems an interesting
aspect that at least one introduced species, Rock Dove, has *not* expanded
into the ancestral Palearctic habitat though there's scads of it lying
around for its taking. Any thoughts beside the obvious one that cities and
farms offer it an easy life?


Michael Price The only alien planet is Earth.
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net - J. G. Ballard