Spotted Doves and Bar-shouldered Doves

[Harvey Perkins <>]

Geoff Dabb in his recent posting on Mylestom birds wrote, inter alia, "Joe Forshaw (who has just had his first Canberra SD in his garden) thinks that the chief victim of that disliked species might be not the rampant Crested Pigeon but the Bar-shouldered Dove."

 

This might well be the case, but it might also be a case of "different strokes for different loc's" (i.e. locations). At Currarong on the Beecroft Peninsula, the northern peninsula enclosing Jevis Bay, Bar-shoulders appear to be making inroads into the suburban blocks, presumably from the adjacent heathlands, despite the presence of Spotted Doves in good numbers. This is based on casual observations during trips to Currarong maybe a couple of times a year for the past 6 years. On my last trip, in April 2011, there were Bar-shoulders pottering about on the grassy nature strips along one of the main streets.

 

On Mayfield Road, in a very rural dairying area between Currarong and Nowra, a flock of about 15 Bar-shouldered doves were quite at home on the telegraph wires and on the dirt road, together with the omnipresent Spotted Doves. My impression is that the Bar-shoulders are increasing generally in the area that, as far as I know, has had Spotted Doves established for quite some time.

 

Cheers,

 

Harvey