White-winged Dove 1/14

I deciding to take the morning off from birding both to get a little sleep after a late night at work and going to breakfast with my family for my Aunts birthday. Unfortunately I couldn't go birding in the afternoon either as I had to go to work. So, at 12:30 I left my house. I saw a few interesting birds along the way.  While I was driving on Highway 402 just west of Wilson Avenue I spotted a Northern Harrier flying over the road, at about the same time an American Kestrel took of from a post not 30 yards away from the Northern Harrier. Just as I was approaching the stop light at Wilson Avenue I saw a dove sitting on the telephone wire right by the telephone post. First thought from the shape was, hey, here is another Eurasian Collared-Dove (which I see in this location frequently). As I started getting closer I noticed it had the color of a Mourning Dove, but wait, was that white on the outer edge of the wing. Why yes, it is. I quickly got in the right hand lane and turned into the houses here and parked. I grabbed my scope and quickly walked to the southwest corned of the intersection and looked up and there it was. I took out my phone and took a few quick shots of the White-winged Dove (110) through my spotting scope before going back to my car and driving to work. This was a very surprising bird and one I had hoped to see during this big year, but one can't expect this species in Larimer County every year....yet.

                                                     White-winged Dove

The White-winged Dove population in growing more and more in Colorado. I have seen over a hundred in one area in Pueblo at one time. In southeast Colorado you can almost expect to see one on a birding trip, but up here in northern Colorado they are still scarce. The first one I saw in Larimer County was actually at my house as it was sitting in an Aspen on the south side of our property. A couple of years ago Nick Komar had one calling around his neighborhood and for a short period a second bird had shown up, but those birds have been long gone. I was able to see one of those birds on several occasions. And now there is this bird.