ML570898841

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Woah! A freaking Ruddy Ground Dove in the Central Valley! First Yolo County record. First seen by Tom Uslan this morning at 7:45. At about 8:45, he captured a couple of images and then sent out an alert on the Yolo Whatsapp group. He then kindly offered to host other birders interested in seeing the bird. (Thank you for hosting us, Tom)! We showed up at 11:15, where the dove was quickly pointed out (feeding in the chicken run) to us by other birders present. It then flew, and we spent twenty minutes looking for it before it flew up onto an exposed tree limb in the row of cottonwood on the west side, then down into the field behind those cottonwoods. We had great views of it in the field for several minutes before it flew back to the exposed tree limb, then up over the house. We all ran around to the other side of the house, where we spotted it perched on a wire. After a minute of sitting on the wire, the dove took off, flying south alongside the wire away from the house. We watched it until it was far enough away that it was hard to see where it appeared to have possibly dropped down into a field. We never saw it after this, though several birders (including us) drove south along the wires searching for the bird. A small dove with a short tail, rufous underwings, a gray head, ruddy body and tail, no scaling on the head, nape, or breast, and a pinkish bill. I heard no vocalizations, but it called at least once before we arrived. I don't think providence should be an issue here, as this bird was extremely flighty, has no bands on the legs, and doesn't appear to have any unusual feathers wear (possibly some lost feathers, but all the primaries appear to be intact, and there is no wear in the tail). Also, this location is out in the country, and the possibility of a released cage bird in the area seems very low. And again, THANK YOU to Tom Uslan for hosting us and allowing us to get fantastic looks as this incredible bird! This was the highlight birdwise this month for sure!

Technical information

Model

E-M1MarkII

Lens

OLYMPUS M.100-400mm F5.0-6.3

ISO

200

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

1255 pixels x 891 pixels

Original file size

657.79 KB