Archive for March, 2009

Here’s a couple of Blue-Bellies challenging one another during mating season. I was surprised at the beautiful coloration on their backs, in addition to the blue patches underneath. Their backs are usually grayish and quite plain.

An interesting footnote about the Blue-Belly is that lyme disease is almost 50% less common in areas that they inhabit; because they carry a bacteria that kills the lyme disease bacteria in ticks that feed upon them.

Recently some friends of mine mentioned that they had seen several band-tailed pigeons here in Yolo County. Since I hadn’t seen a band-tailed pigeon since I was a teenager I decided to take a drive out to the location of their sighting to see if I could see them myself and possibly get a photo or two. Upon my arrival at the location I spotted the birds sitting in a tree and took a few photos. Something about the appearance of the birds told me that they weren’t band-tailed pigons, so I did a bit of research and discovered that the birds were  Eurasian Collared Doves which have spread throughout most  of North America, but I think were most likely released in the last year or two by an FFA (Future Farmers of America) student that raised them for a “fair project.”

Below are some photos I took of  the doves, and if you click here you can hear an audio of their diistinctive call.

Dove sighting was on county 97a near I-5 in Yolo County, CA.