Inca Dove searching

Yesterday, I first heard and saw the Borrego Springs Inca Dove around 10:00 a.m. or just a few minutes thereafter, but not long after that it shut up and could not be refound for several hours, but then was seen and heard a couple times in the afternoon. This morning, Barbara and Nancy had it first at 7:10, and it then came out to feed with the ground doves a few minutes later, around 7:30 a.m., but then scurried back to sit quietly under a bush with said ground doves for almost the next hour, in view, until when they left at 8:30. That feeding site is the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Yaqui Road and De Anza Drive, and the bush in question is there as well. That area gets the early morning sun, and the birds were sitting quietly in the sun warming up at that time. Seems like when the bird or birds go elsewhere they get extremely difficult to find. And at this point it appears that there is only one inca dove for sure, and if people go they should try to document more than one, but that species is notorious for staying in close proximity to each other, often shoulder to shoulder just like munias, so only one bird sitting in a line with ground doves is suspicious that there’s only truly one Inca present.

Paul Lehman, San Diego