Our ring doves seem to have a very complicated social life. There are four, sometimes five, birds who come to the garden to take the seed from the grass, and because males and females look almost identical, it becomes very difficult to work out what ‘s going on, with all the chasing and chest puffing. The books say that the males are slightly bigger, but I think we must have some very chunky lassies.
This morning, there was one dove sitting on the bramble which runs along the fenceline, watching me refill the water trays and scatter the seed. By the time that I had returned to the house and locked the backdoor, it and the robin were already down on the grass. As I washed up the breakfast dishes, a second dove appeared and began to peck away at the lawn. They seemed to be the same size and fed together quite amicably, until a third bird appeared. This one puffed out its chest and eventually chased off one of the others which retreated to the rowan tree, where it stayed for a minute or so before returning to the lawn, whereupon it became involved in a stramash with the other original feeder and both flew off behind the house. I have no idea which one of them returned…or if it was another bird entirely. It reminded me a lot of trying to do the count for the Great Garden Bird Watch. Because it happens when the weather is colder and food scarcer, the feeders and lawn are swamped and trying to count upwards of thirty assorted sparrows and chaffinches, etc., when they won’t stay still! Never work with children and animals.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 