Greetings all! It has been a bit sparse out of Intrigued as of late and for that my apologies. Unfortunately, the production is probably going to stay a bit light for the remainder of this month and then into early August due to most of my time being devoted to helping my wife through her medical situation. Looking forward to when this is all behind her – until then, my activities will take a backstage. If there is lemonade in this basket of lemons is there might be a significant amount of wait time involved with all her appointments at Mayo. Will have my trusty Surface to crank out what I can in those wait cycles – probably good for me to keep my mind busy on other things when she is away.
This being the first day of appointments and sure enough sitting in a waiting room waiting for Linda’s name to be called. How about we turn our attention to a rather colorfully hued member of the Dove family.
The White-Tipped Dove is not a new bird to the blog. This red-legged Dove was first featured back in February of this year (link here). If you recall, that post featured an encounter at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge back in January of 2017. Well, guess what, I had the pleasure of meeting likely another specimen of this species at the exact same location on our December 2017 trip. Now, that may seem like an odd coincidence, but in truth, you are not going to find them in too many other locations.
Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the White-Tipped Dove.
From a US perspective, these Doves run a very narrow region band. Narrow in this context translates to the southern tip of Texas and… and .. well, the southern tip of Texas. They extend further into Central America and a small push into South America and that is pretty much it. No trip to Texas, no White-Tipped Dove for you. As a public service announcement for my brother Ron, there is absolutely no reason for you to go to Texas …ever. Hot, muggy, bugs, Armadillos (link here) and let’s not forget those prehistoric killers (link here).
Nope, no reason to risk life and limb just to get one measly bird (especially now that I have been able to catch up some ground on your California birds). Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. Unlike the first encounter with the White-Tipped, this one was willing to give me ample time to photograph it. The previous one would dart out, peck at the ground, drop its feathers to moon me and then dash back into the underbrush chuckling the entire time. This specimen wasn’t as easily amused and went about the daily business of nourishment allowing for some extra shutter time. More importantly, it provided me the opportunity to pull the camera away and simply enjoy the elegance of this Dove. Sure, the Rock Dove is relatively harsh in its color palette and the Mourning definitely doesn’t have anything much to flaunt, however, their southern kin enjoy a feathering ordained with a pretty pink to light purple dusting that would make any interior decorator jealous. Even those bright reddish legs coordinate nicely with the highlights.
Clearly this Dove knows it stands out from the other Doves in the beauty pageant competitions and (according to Cornell) chooses to keep its nesting habits “extremely clean” – take that you filthy living Rock Pigeons ha. I should also mention their eyes are rather stunning. Unlike the rest of their coloring, the White-Tipped sports a yellow/golden tone. Having missed decent shots of the eye in the first encounter, spent extra time trying to get better shots of this feature in this set complete with my signature over the shoulder shot.
Well, Linda is heading back from her CT scan now and better wrap this up so we can get to the next appointment. In closing should probably point out the correlation with the name. The White-Tipped refers to the white coloring on the tips of their tail. More pronounced when they have their tail fanned out (trusting Cornell on that as I have never seen them do that) as well as from below which I have had the displeasure of seeing per the multitude of moonings from the first encounter (shudder).
That’s a wrap, stay healthy everyone!
Wildlife Intrigued 
If you have time between appointments and Linda is feeling up to a short drive, I would suggest White Water State Park. Small, cozy, and eagles (at least when I was there this Spring). Best wishes with all the appointments and for a quick recovery for Linda.
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Will definitely look that up. We visited a place called Quary Hill Nature Preserve on our way into town. Amazingly nice place, paved trails, grassy trails, rocky trails – pretty much everything you would want …except birds unfortunately. Still an excellent chance to relax before checking in for all the appointments (even went back in late afternoon to get an 8 mile training run in) Thanks for the well wishes, We are finishing up our last appointment for the day with the cardiologists – the lab rat is getting pretty worn down with all the tests today although I must admit this place is very well run and super nice people.
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Fingers crossed everything goes nice and smoothly. Mrs H has just had to have a shed load of tests in hospital after feeling unwell on the way to work, all clear.
Nice post it’s good to occupy the mind.
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Thanks B! Glad to hear the Mrs made it through her tests okay, that can definitely be stressful. Linda is dragging a bit now, but she did get good news in her last appointment with the cardiologist. They think they can do the less evasive option to replace the valve which will hopefully prevent having to do the full chest crack – need to do some more tests tomorrow and then confirm with surgeon in a couple of days but definitely a good start. Hey, ended up watching a drag race competition while flipping through the channels last night – think it was held in Denver – you are apparently wearing off on me!
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Sounds like very good news, modern surgery is mind blowing.
Used to be able to watch the American NHRA drag racing over here on the web but a greedy fox put a stop to it!
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