Tweets

Thanks to all who responded to my query re wild Rock Doves.

I was surprised by the extent to which they've colonised dry habitat
cliffs, but found the following excerpt in a series of Lars Jonsson field
guides (this one's the Birds of Sea and Coast) published in the late 70's
and early 80's by Penguin that was likely a prototype of the recent Birds
of Europe guide by him.

"In western Europe the Rock Dove occurs on sea cliffs and in nearby fields,
while in other areas it mainly inhabits rocky mountain and desert terrain."
His range map of RODO (at least the known wild population, presumably, as
his map clearly excludes urban RODO), shows that it is surprisingly limited
to southern Europe and is solidly represented only in Spain, Italy, Greece,
and the Balkans, Asia Minor, and northern Africa, all comprised mostly of
the latterly described habitats. The apparently disjunct Northern European
populations he portrays as limited to Brittany, western Ireland, the
Scottish coasts, and both the Faroes and Orkney Islands; all of these areas
where sea cliffs are a primary landform, and where there's a *much* wetter
and foggier climate than the previously listed areas, but very similar to
ours on the outer Pacific coast.

So (an ounce/gram of fact producing a pound/kilo of theory ;-), might the
above suggest that, firstly, there are two 'types' of RODO, one that lives
on hot, dry interior/mountainous cliffs and one that inhabits mostly sea
cliffs? And secondly, would the nesting habits of *our* wild RODO indicate
that they're descended from the southern 'desert' population rather than
the northern lot which might be more adapted to the wet and foggy coastal
cliffs of Cascadia? Cliffs so very similar to those Gulf Stream-lapped
crags and precipices of Hibernia, yet on which they are so conspicuously
absent?


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