Mourning Doves in Yard The reason I have the doves pictured today is because one day when Betty was here she looked out the kitchen window and said "Oh you have Collared Eurasian Doves". And I said "Oh, no, they are mourning doves". And she said, "These are collared doves", and I said "Oh no, they couldn't be". Well low and behold out under the window was a small flock of Eurasian collared doves. Never seen any here before. Did see them at Betty's feeder in Mesquite where people have turned domesticated ones loose. Didn't have enough presence of mind to try to get a picture of these. Sure should have - too preoccupied but will definitely tell the Game and Fish office that I saw them here, plain as day. I'm curious if anyone else in our area has seen them. If they survived here they could displace our native species. (From Field Guide to the Birds of North America: Escapes of domesticated Ringed Turtle Dove, an Old World species, may form small populations; but do not do well in the wild. Etc. Eurasian species: introduced to Bahamas, spread to Florida. Common, spreading outside mapped range.") Well this is very far outside its mapped range of around the Gulf Coast!!!
Betty and Nancy got packed up and left for home this morning. We had an omelet and country fries for breakfast, and sat and visited with our coffee and tea for a while before they took off. I wasn't ready for them to leave yet and sorry to see them go. There was a skiff of snow on the ground again and their windshield was iced up pretty good. They decided to go around through Pinedale, look at the town and do a little shopping. There are some socks that Betty likes to buy which she found at Falers, and Nancy got some too.
Betty and Nancy called this afternoon from south of Evanston and said they had really driven through a blizzard. I thought ..eh? maybe an inch or two? NOT! The heavier storm and more snow on the ground started about Daniel and just got worse and worse all the way to I-80. Betty called on the cell phone and told me what they had been through and that they nearly got a motel in Kemmerer, but decided to go on. I called them about 7:30 to see if they made it to their motel in Nephi and they were eating dinner there then, so had gotten to their first night's destination. I imagine it was quite an experience for the desert rats.
We just had heavy dreary clouds and a stiff breeze here all the rest of the day. I worked on finishing up one of my WAOW jobs and was glad to send that off to our board by evening. Joe and I had the leftover tacos for dinner, so that was easy and tasted even better than the first time. Even though they hadn't been doing much running around, the dogs just seemed exhausted and slept all day.
