Christmas Counts have documented well the northern creep of MODO's winter
range. In Darrel's case an increase in clearcuts in western Lincoln County has
probably contributed to the uptick in detections. Mourning Dove is the number 2
species at bird feeders nationwide, surpassed only by Juncos. Even at our
woodland house we get them regularly from March 'til ?. They are hunted in some
parts of the USA and have a life expectancy of 18 months. A year old MOD can
rise up to 4 clutches in a single season.
On the Corvallis CBC two years ago I was stunned to come across 70 MODO
in one spot immediately north of McClagan and Seward in Linn Co (the Bald Eagle
roost). These were attracted to an organic flax field which has alas been
replaced by annual rye-grass or winter wheat. No more Short-eared Owls at
sundown.
On Nov 21, 2017, at 10:07 AM, Cindy Tofflemoyer wrote:
Interesting, I've been watching my MD's as well and we've had 2 for as long
as I can remember and this year we have 6. We had been seeing an increase in
Eurasian Collared Doves ( they showed up about 4 years ago) and I worried
about the MD's-but the ECD's are nowhere to be found right now. Springfield,
OR.
On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 8:54 AM <5hats@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Until about 2013 Mourning Dove was a once every two to three year bird at my
place at Thornton Creek (Lincoln). Since that time it has become much more
regular, particularly in the past year. A tenth of a mile from our house
there has been a flock of ever increasing size which frequents the gravel
road. Late last summer there were about ten birds in it, but this morning it
numbered about fifty. Such a flock in this location would have been
completely unheard of until quite recently.
Darrel
