I glanced through the window on our front door and saw this fellow crouching on the porch.
At first, I thought it was a pigeon, but after observing him for a while, I’m pretty sure it’s a dove. I’ve seen white wild doves before, but they are not common.
He seemed a bit wilted by the heat, but not overly distressed. I walked within two feet of him several times and he didn’t back away. Debbie put out a shallow plastic bowl of water and he climbed onto the side and took a few drinks. Later, he walked over and conquered the ceramic iguana.
After about 20 minutes of investigating the flowerbed and surroundings, he disappeared. I’m sure it’s an omen, but darned if I know of what.
Eric
Those white doves have fooled at least 2 people now. They are from Resthaven Cemetery which people release sometimes during funerals and other occassions.
What’s the difference between a white pigeon and a white dove?
I did not know that the release of white doves was fairly commonplace around here. I’ve seen it in ceremonies in other (usually much larger) cities.
As far as the difference between pigeons and doves, there’s not much, at least scientifically-speaking. I think they’re all from the same family (Columbidae); you may have to get into the sub-family or even genus to make any scientific distinctions. From a practical standpoint, I think pigeons are usually a bit larger. Around here, the most common dove is the mourning dove (subfamily Leptotilinae) while the common pigeon is classified in the Columbinae subfamily.
We’d probably need to defer to Burr Williams at the Sibley Nature Center for a better distinction between the two.
Makes you wonder what is the longevity of white doves after they have been released into the wild. Zeroing in on a ceramic Iguana is not a good sign. 😉
I suspect that this one won’t survive too long; his reflexes didn’t strike me as being particularly sharp.