This is a slightly blurry photo of a Common Ground Dove. Why is this interesting? Because the photo was taken this morning in my side yard. And because Common Ground Doves normally are not seen north of the southern parts of Texas, California, and other states along the US/Mexico boarder.
He first showed up at our birdfeeder the day before yesterday with a group of Mourning Doves. At first we thought he was a just one of the other doves offspring since he was so small but then we realized it was too late in the season for baby sized birds to be baby birds. We look in our Stokes Field Guide to Birds and discovered that the bird we had at our birdfeeder was actually a Common Ground Dove. My husband contacted an ornithologist at one of the community colleges here in Kansas who contacted a birder in Colorado who said he would be out this way Saturday and would like to come and see the bird for himself. In a bit of synchronicity the man's parents live here in town.
So around 0800 tomorrow morning I will have a stranger in my house, sitting in a kitchen chair near the window that looks out at the birdfeeder, hoping he will be lucky enough to see a live Common Ground Dove drinking from my birdbath.
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