[mou] Inca dove still in Two Harbors

[Laura Erickson]

Out-of-range birds are out of range because of either a screw-up in
their internal migratory patterns or because someone released a
captive bird or other odd accident.  If Jim and Sharon close down
their feeding station, it is not going to send the bird on its way.
It will send it in search of another source of food, but since its
migratory instinct is out of alignment, it's as likely to move in a
northerly direction as a southerly one.

Scott Weidensaul has written a great deal about hummingbirds wintering
in northern areas.  He thinks we're witnessing the start of the
evolution of new migratory patterns and a new wintering range for
them.  This may be true of some other species as well.  Feeders are
now as much a part of the American landscape as highrises and other
man-made changes that are harmful for birds.  At worst in this case,
the bird will die after having stayed alive a few extra
days/weeks/months because of bird feeding.  At best, it will put on
enough fat to trigger a migratory movement in the right direction, or
will actually survive the winter.

The first cardinals to appear at feeders in Duluth may well have been
doomed individuals, and were probably a breeding dead-end for those
birds who arrived before there were potential mates here at the same
time.  But little by little the numbers showing up increased, and now
they're regular breeders in most Duluth neighborhoods.  That may or
may not happen in the case of Inca Doves.  But these outliers from
normal birds might as well have the same benefits we give our other
backyard birds.  They certainly face the same, or greater, hazards,
and most of those hazards come from other changes we humans have
presented them with.  Might as well give them one little gift, too.

Laura Erickson
Duluth


On Nov 9, 2007 10:37 AM, Tom Klein <Tom.Klein at dnr.state.mn.us> wrote:
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:58:18 +0000
> From: "jslind at frontiernet.net" <jslind at frontiernet.net>
> Subject: [mou] Inca Dove still in Two Harbors
> To: mou-net at moumn.org
> Message-ID: <20071108185818.3qwnm6wijqtk4ook at webmail.frontiernet.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=ISO-8859-1;     DelSp="Yes";
>         format="flowed"
>
> I just spotted the Inca Dove in our neighborhood again....Today at lunch I filled our feeders and tossed out some
> seed in the yard and on the sidewalk so hopefully it will stick around.
>
> Sharon Lind
>
> An Inca dove in NE. Minnesota in November is in for some serious challenges.
> Are you not dooming this bird by feeding it?
>
> Tom Klein
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Laura Erickson
For the love, understanding, and protection of birds
www.lauraerickson.com



There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds.
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after
the winter.

			--Rachel Carson