Subject: doves in the Similkameen Valley
Date: Feb 10 19:16:26 2002
From: Chris Charlesworth - c_charlesworth23 at hotmail.com


Birders,

Chris Siddle and Ryan Tomlinson and I ventured S. from Kelowna towards the
South Okanagan (BC) this morning, with high hopes of finding all kinds of
exciting birds. Our hopes were pretty much smashed when Chris' car had fatal
problems on Hwy 3, E. of Keremeos. We had to abort mission! Luckily we had
made a brief stop in at Summerland and added the LEWIS' WOODPECKER, a winter
and year bird for us, so the day wasn't a complete loss.

After Chris' wife, Sonja, picked us up, she offered to take us to Keremeos
in search of the recently discovered colony of doves we so badly wanted to
see. What a great lady! We pulled into the Keremeos / Cawston area in the
Similkameen Valley, and after some searching finally found the right
neighbourhood. In all we counted 20 - 30 doves which were very possibly
EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES (Streptopelia decaocta. I have seen this species in
Texas, but these birds troubled me very slightly. Here is my description:

- larger than Mourning Dove.
- primaries darker than rest of wing, especially visible in flight.
- tail had classic "H" pattern of ECDO with black extending down sides of
the outer retrices.
- breast, belly and undertail pale grey / white.
- call a distinctive "coo-coooo-coo".

The only troubling feature was the undertail coverts. In Sibley, the ECDO
pictured have grey undertail coverts, that do contrast with the rest of the
underparts. I checked in (Mullarney, Svennson, Zetterstrom & Grant) the
birds of Europe and found that they do not emphasize the grey undertail. In
fact they picture a white undertail. Some sources say the call of the
Eurasian Collared-Dove is distinctive from the other main species of
confusion, the Ringed-Turtle Dove (Streptopelia risoria). If so, these birds
were definitely ECDOs.

Upon talking to local Cawston and Keremeos residents, a school teacher kept
captive doves in the area in the late 60s and early 1970s. The birds
accidentally escaped and small numbers were seen, especially in winter, when
the birds flocked together and converged on feeders in region. During the
summer, the birds disperse and nest in the hills and heavily wooded yards
around the towns. They have been steadily increasing, although raptors take
a toll in the winter, since then, and now number close to 100. We saw the
birds at two locations: 2201 Ferko Road and at a yard near the end of
Coulthard Road (both in the Cawston area). The birds were free flying and
seemed to coming in from all directions. By ABA rules, these birds should be
countable. There's a breeding population that has been present since the
1970s and they are breeding. These birds may account for the recent rash of
ECDO sightings in the S. Okanagan Valley of BC.

Does anyone have any comments on the acceptability and identification of
these doves?

Chris Charlesworth
Kelowna,BC,Canada



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