Larry Gara and I, previously frustrated by bad weather, managed to confirm the presence of Eurasian Collared Doves in Port William, Ohio, just short of the Greene county line. The location given by John was accurate. Across Main Street from the church is an area of small residences with tall shade trees, crisscrossed by little lanes. We first heard the birds singing their distinctive "decaocto" song, a three syllable phrase repeated six times. We also saw two birds gravelling in one of the lanes. We clearly saw the lighter color (plenty of Mourning Doves around for comparison), the prominent black mark on the neck, and the squared-off tail. These birds were scared off by a cat before we could think about getting a picture. We figure that there were at least five birds around. I must confess that I view the spread of these birds to Ohio with a jaundiced eye. They are very aggressive and are believed to have had negative impacts on other birds in Europe. When I first went to Europe in 1962, I found them on the continent but not in Britain. In 1977, when we moved to London, Eurasian Collared Doves were everywhere and were believed by many to be the most abundant columbid in the country. They were widely blamed for decreasing numbers of Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves, and Turtle Doves. In South Florida, Eurasian Collared Doves were said to be the result of the release of a number of cage birds in the Bahamas in the 80s. By the time I started working in the Everglades in 1995, they were everywhere. South Florida is dove heaven. It is not unusual to see five species of dove in a day. As yet, there does not seem to be evidence of decreases in the populations of other doves. This may be because there are no other streptopelia doves in the area, implying that it may occupy a niche between White-crowned Pigeon and Mourning Dove. Nevertheless, Eurasian Collared Dove is a notoriously successful invasive species and its advent, given our experience with other invasive species, can hardly be reckoned to be a good thing. Cheers, Bob -- Robert D Powell Congress Farm Research Institute Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com Nulla dies sine aves ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]