I am down in Essex area for work this week and between doing bird surveys we have been able to squeeze in a bit of extra birding on the side. Our hotel in Leamington is right near the location where Eurasian Collared Doves have been seen off and on for the last 6 months of so. Ken and I had been trying numerous times before and after work to spot these birds but with no luck! This morning we finally found the birds and to our surprise actually found the nest as well! As far as we are aware, it is the first recorded nest for this species in the province! Certainly an interesting find!
The Eurasian Collared Dove is an introduced species that has expanded its range from the southern U.S and has been creeping ever so slowly into the province.
I snapped a few photos of the bird on the nest, but it was hard to get a good shot with all the branches. It appears that these birds are using an old squirrel nest that has been flattened out as a base. The birds were seen bringing nesting material and also calling occasionally.
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| The nest |
Squirrel Nest!
ReplyDeleteAs I already mentioned, these birds nested last year (2014) as well. No nest was found, just two dependent young in addition to the two adult birds. It was early September.
ReplyDeleteWell I was joking... Nice find NN!
ReplyDeleteHaha squirrel nest indeed!
ReplyDeleteThat's cool Alan, it will be interesting to see if they successfully rear this year.