FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Re: speculation on Eurasian Collared-Doves

[James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>]

Don Miller may be right about Eurasian Collared-Doves following the U.S. 
Highway 11E corridor in their colonization efforts of East Tennessee. 
I've had the opportunity of learning probably more than I wanted about 
homing (or racing, as their owners proudly proclaim) pigeons as a couple 
of my readers this year have captured and returned banded birds coming 
to their feeders.
Of course the question is how do pigeons find their way back home, and 
the latest research indicates that they probably follow the Interstates.
The most recent incident seems to bear this out. The pigeons were 
released near Athens, Tenn., and one came to a feeder near Gray, near 
I-81. The owner (traced from the band) lives in Pennsylvania in a town 
just off I-81. My theory is the bird decided to hang around Gray after 
making a wrong turn onto I-26, and had enough sun direction and other 
clues to realize that this wasn't the right way, but there's a place to 
eat.
Thanks to the loan of my Hav-a-Hart trap (useless for raccoons, good for 
pigeons) and the U.S. Postal Service, the bird is now safely home in 
Pennsylvania.
Why aren't collared-doves following the Interstate? For about 10-15 
years after I-81 was built TDOT did not maintain the medians or 
right-of-way and they grew up in Eastern Red Cedar, the perfect tree, as 
it turns out, to not only screen the lanes from each other and 
neighbors, but also a wonderful soft crash barrier. Sometimes nature 
provides far better for us if you leave it along than legions of highway 
engineers.
As any of you have probably noted, the cedars are heavily colonized by 
Common Grackles, and the whole corridor, overgrown in trees, does not 
provide the kind of open habitat for doves that Don describes. I also 
like the idea of Jonesborough being a confluence for collared-doves. 
Parallel to 11E is Union Church Road, which I drive to work every 
morning, and Mourning Doves are overwhelming the utility wires there. 
I'll start watching for the lighter collared-doves.
P.S. Anyone with a banded pigeon coming to a feeder is welcome to borrow 
my trap. Do a search for racing pigeons to find out how to read band 
numbers. Lost birds are usually posted.

James Brooks

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