My First Real Rarity for the Yard – White-winged Dove, June 8, 2020

Now that Spring was over and birding in my yard had slowed down quite dramatically, I spent some time thinking about what the next additions to my yard list might be.  When I got to the doves and pigeons, I realized that I still needed Rock Pigeon for the yard list.  Sometimes you’ll see small groups of Rock Pigeons randomly passing overhead in areas where you wouldn’t normally expect them, so perhaps I might get lucky enough to be looking up when 1 or more passed by.  (One of the rare times when you might look forward to being “lucky” to find a Pigeon.)  And then there’s the Eurasian Collared-Dove as a remote possibility.  The only place where they are regular in the area is a small colony at a grain facility in Mills River about 30 minutes away.  Though there are occasional mostly single birds spotted here and there in the vicinity, perhaps wanderers from the Mills River group, or just birds passing through the area.  My best, albeit remote, chance might be to have one visit my feeders along with the wintering flock of Mourning Doves.  Then again, little did I know that the next Columbid for my yard list would be even less likely than these options.

I started my “Big Sit” on my back deck on June 8th just after 6 AM and settled in checking off the regular local nesters.  From the woodlands I heard species like Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Pewee, Hooded Warbler and Scarlet Tanager.  And from the orchard next door I listened to the nearly non-stop song of the Indigo Bunting, the occasional Field Sparrow, and a distant Canada Goose or 2.  I was particularly interested in watching and listening for the Baltimore Oriole family as the babies seemed to have fledged from the nest in my yard 2 days earlier.  Unfortunately, I didn’t hear or see any Orioles that morning.  All in all it was starting off as just a regular kind of summer morning.

Then at about 7:45 it got really interesting – I heard a call of a White-winged Dove!  It was the 4-note call very similar to the cadence of a Barred Owl.  And the bird was close enough that I could hear the cooing tones of each note.  I’m very familiar with this call, and instantly identified it as a WWDO.  And although I might have expected it to be coming from the orchard below me, it sounded like it could be close enough to be right in my backyard.  Surely it would call again – but the only Dove I could hear was a distant Mourning Dove.  After about 30 minutes I took a walk to the orchard and played some tape, but got no responses.  I spent the next 2 hours on the deck with no further calls.

Two days later I was back on the deck hoping against hope that the Dove would still be around.  And sure enough it called again – twice giving the 4-note call and once a bit later giving the low cooing call.  This time the bird was more distant and calling in the general direction of the orchard.  I spent 45 minutes in the orchard, and another 2 hours on my deck, but didn’t hear, or see, the bird again. 

I had a similar experience on the 13th – two of the 4-note calls at 6:45, and again a couple times at 7:15.  The bird was once again singing in the distance to the northeast, in the general direction of the orchard.  Or could it be in the neighborhood just on the other side of the orchard?  I took a little drive through the area and discovered a pair of feeders in the lots adjacent to the orchard and in roughly the right direction.  Could it be visiting those feeders at least sporadically?  I got permission from the owner at one of the houses and spent 30 minutes watching his feeders with no luck.  This was getting frustrating.

Then on the 14th I thought I’d change my approach.  I started the morning at the feeders in the neighborhood below me rather than on my deck.  I waited for 45 minutes, seeing a fair number of Mourning Doves in the area, but no White-winged Dove. 

It turns out that the 13th would be the last day I heard the bird, despite continued “Big Sits” on my deck on subsequent days.

That was one of my most frustrating birding experiences ever.  I only heard the bird on 3 days over a 6-day period, and each time it called for just a few seconds.  I bet I didn’t hear the bird for more than 30 seconds total on those 3 days combined, despite a total of more than 14 hours of watching/listening on 5 of those days.  Not to mention that I didn’t see the bird at all.  If only it had been as cooperative as the Mourning Doves which were calling frequently during that time.

There are only 2 other eBird records of WWDO in the mountains of NC – interestingly one of these was less than a month earlier on 5/16 in Jackson County.  And a bit farther afield, there was a calling WWDO in northern GA (Forsyth County) on 5/11 this year.  That’s just 125 miles away as the Dove flies.  A mini invasion?

The White-winged Dove was #300 for my NC statelist – the 49^th addition since I moved here.  NC is now my 10th state with at least 300 species.  And it was yard bird #128 – my first real rarity for the yard. 

My statebird map for WWDO is inserted below.  The 9 solid blue states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range; the 2 cross-hatched states are those remaining states where it’s regular though I’ve yet to see it.  And the 9 tan states are those where I’ve seen this species as a vagrant, a comment on this species’ penchant for vagrancy across much of the country. 

Surely if I was lucky enough to find a White-winged Dove for my yard, Collared-Dove and Rock Pigeon couldn’t be too far behind.  I’m not exactly holding my breath.