[SBB] Morgan Hill and (no) Eurasian-Collared Doves

["Kris Olson" <[[email protected]]>]

Today I went to Coyote Resevoir (Coyote Lake County Park) to see if I could
find the WHITE-THROATED SPARROW and ROCK WREN, which I did.  The sparrow
took awhile longer than the wren. The large sparrow flock was down a space
or two from camping place #16-17.  I got close in my car and watched; they
flushed two or three times, and still no WTSP.  Finally they moved back
toward #17, in the edges of the grass near shrubs, and suddenly the WTSP was
with them. Nice looks. There are at least 2 other large flocks that I passed
on the drive to the dam, but in short looks I did not find another WTSP.

At the dam, the ROCK WREN was singing when I got there, as Mike said, on the
side of the dam that is away from the lake. I appeared at least 3 times.
There were also at least 20 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS buzzing the
spillway, clinging to the spillway wall, and posing nicely on the chain link
fence -- sometimes 8 or so at a time. No Rufous-crowned sparrows, alas.
There were 3 WOOD DUCKS at this end of the reservoir, 1 Golden-crowned
Sparrow, 1 California Towhee, House Finches (quite intensely red),
Yellow-rumped Warblers (looking almost ready to show up in the mountains
with their new plumage) and Black-Phoebes

After leaving the park, at the intersection of Roop and Estates Drive, I
passed a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, so I decided to turn right on Estates (where the
shrike was) and see where it went. Made a loop on Bridle Path down to New--
no sign of an unusual hawk.

At the intersection of New and Rucker there were indeed 2 hawks: a Red-tail
flying over and a Red-shouldered perched in one of the large trees, but no
Ferruginous. Lots of places to look! There were also some Violet-green
and/or Tree Swallows over Coyote Reservoir and the flat lands.

I drove north on Foothill Ave. looking for hawks. It is a slower road than
New. As I drove by a telephone pole, I noticed 2 doves that looked different
from the Mourning Doves around, so I turned around -- and there were two
(probably not wild) EURASIAN-COLLARED DOVES. They were quite involved with
each other, "necking" with their bills, one of them cooing (which sounded
very familiar from other of these birds in southern California and Arizona,
but I did not get a full sample of the sound.)  They had black under the
tail -- black "outer web" per Sibley and gray under tail coverts.   The
thing that did not seem right is that they did not seem very wild. They let
me drive quite close; they let a pair of draft horses pull a cart by them,
and when the male finally flushed, it came back instantly to try to mount
the female.  They just seemed tamer than ones I have seen other places -
they can be fairly shy. The ones I have seen near the Salton Sea are more
like these in behavior -- somewhat approachable. The pair was across from
#11120 on Foothill, south of Church. According to my CSAA map, this is south
of Morgan Hill and north of Gilroy -- perhaps in San Martin or
unincorporated county.

When I got home I found Bob Reiling's note about Eurasian Collared Doves in
Morgan Hill (Oct. 2004). The place he went, Murphy and Maple, is north of
where I saw the birds today -- 3 or 4 miles.



10/12/2004 from Bob Reiling:

All,

This morning frank Vanslager and I checked out the Eurasian Collared-Doves 
near the intersection of Murphy Ave and Maple Ave in Morgan Hill.  (Frank
and I 
have been expecting these birds in the county for the last couple years.)  
When we first arrived we saw a confusing array of perhaps a couple dozen 
Collared-Doves.  These clearly wild birds were drawn to the back yard of a
house on 
the southwest corner which had a "Birds for sale" sign in the driveway.  We 
further noted that at least one cage had several Collared-Doves in it.  In a

subsequent talk with the owner he indicated that the "free" Collared-Doves
in the 
area were his (released by him over the years) and that he has feed set out
for 
them.  Some of the birds in the cage appeared to be almost all white (young 
fawn-colored Ringed Turtle-Dove?) while others appeared to be mostly
Eurasian 
Collared Doves.  I don't think that the owner knew or cared which they were.

Do they interbreed?  They have been nesting in the trees near his home.  In
any 
case a couple of the wild doves in the neighborhood looked like and cooed 
like Eurasian Collared-Doves.  Looks like we'll have to find our county
lifers 
elsewhere.


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