Brother Gardner and I made a pilgrimage out to West Manchester (DeLorme
64A 2/3) this morning, the scene of what are--as far as anyone knows, or
at least tells--the only Eurasian collared-doves remaining from this
year's mini-invasion.
        John Habig and Rick Asamoto had sent photos of three ECDs accompanied
by a strange fourth bird, and we wanted to check them out. West
Manchester is not large, nor was it very busy at 830 am (everyone must
have been at church), so we soon found the four birds at feeders at 200
Walnut St on the west side of Rte 127, accompanied by mourning doves.
        One, which looked at least to share the genus Streptopelia, was not an
ECD; colored like vanilla ice cream dribbled with butterscotch, it was
probably an African collared-dove S. roseogrisea, a non-established
domesticated form we once knew as the ringed turtle-dove. This one was
obviously the result of some determined aviculture. We got good looks at
two of the other three, and they showed all the field marks of wild
ECDs; one even seemed mildly interested in my amateurish imitation of
their call.
        That there were three ECDs is consistent with John's observation of a
juvenile there in September, which confirmed the first breeding of this
newcomer to Ohio. We couldn't find any ECDs in Fort Jefferson up the
road, and upon returning we didn't refind them at Walnut St, but they
must have been around somewhere.  Looks like this species, as in so many
other places, is here to stay.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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