collared dove sighting

[Dwight Harley]

I had heard that collared doves had made their way into South Dakota but I had not seen one until last week. We had been duck hunting and were driving back through Byrant,SD. The guy with me says "Look, that's odd to see any doves still around here this time of year, and man, look at the size of those things." And sure enough there was a pair of collared doves sitting on top of a street sign. They let us park within about 15 yards and we got to look them over carefully with the binoculars. I wonder if they were hanging around someone's bird feeder?

 

[TimJ]

Cool! I think they are going to really show up in the next couple years.
I saw my first ones last fall near a lake south of Madison. They were well away from any farms or homes, that kind of surprised me. This spring I saw several pairs and figured they were raising young nearby but then about mid summer they disappeared. My brother in law sees them all the time on the west side of Sioux Falls.
They are a pretty neat bird and once you see them flying there is no mistaking them for mourning doves. The sounds they make are quite distinctive also. It can be heard for a long ways. Just google collared dove sound to hear it. The make some other crazy sounds other then the cooing but you don't hear that nearly as far.

Tim