Common Ground Dove

Doing what Common Ground Doves Do

Today after patiently waiting a week I was able to make it to Captree State Park in hopes of finding the Common Ground Dove which certainly has caused a surprising stir (articles in Newsday, coverage on the evening news, AP reports etc.) for such an innocuous bird. After walking around for a bit in hopes of finding the bird solo, I came across a few others who had seen it recently near the big green bouy adjacent to the tolls. I figured I'd wait around and hope it showed up as searching by myself was doing no good... after a short wait it appeared and I got a few OK images before it flew to the North where Hugh McGuinness quickly found it...though once again it flew away just a few minutes later but landed in the path of some on-coming birders returning from the Overlook. After some patience a good guess at where it would move, I got a few OK photos. I don't often concede that another photographer bested me, but it will be hard to improve on some of the images Lloyd Spitalnik got earlier in the week (though he was graced with much nicer lighting!)  Either way, it was fun to get another species on the Island, so many thanks to all who aided in finding it today, this week and originally.  I will have to look in my files from El Salvador to see if I picked up this species... I know I got a few doves but didn't pay much attention to which ones they were.

Why did the Common Ground Dove cross the road?

If this bird continues to hang around I may make an other trip (especially with a bonus day off coming this week) in hopes of better images.  I missed out on the Western Kingbird as well today, so it would be fun to get that.  Tomorrow I'm off to photograph some raptors... hopefully I will have some success.