Garden Wildlife UK

A brand new collared dove today . It still had that ghostly shimmering paleness that only the young ones have.
Seemed to be impressed by the catering arrangements but I thought it was a bit chilly for it to be out without its collar

Placido wrote:A brand new collared dove today . It still had that ghostly shimmering paleness that only the young ones have.
Seemed to be impressed by the catering arrangements but I thought it was a bit chilly for it to be out without its collar

Kids eh!

Don't know where they've been but they're suddenly back. Yesterday and today, at the same time funnily enough, two collies have visited and tucked into (mainly) the suet pellets.
Actually, the pellets seem to be the nosh of choice all round at the moment. That's not to say that the sunflower hearts, p'nuts and mixed seed and porage aren't warmly welcomed too

Haven't had any in the garden recently but here's one on the aerial of the house opposite.

Ah, they're nice !!
Trying to tune into Sky Sports 2 no doubt

Makes one wonder .......

Everyone knows ( ) that collared doves were first chronicled as breeding in the UK in 1955 having spread from the East across Europe.
However, this is interesting:
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/coll ... l-with-eos

Landseer, 1841

Placido wrote:Makes one wonder .......

Everyone knows ( ) that collared doves were first chronicled as breeding in the UK in 1955 having spread from the East across Europe.
However, this is interesting:
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/coll ... l-with-eos

Landseer, 1841

It was quite usual for Victorian explorers to bring back flora and fauna from their travels so perhaps the Collared Doves were brought back to inhabit Dovecots or just for decoration. I'm wondering if the child is one of Queen Victorias' spawn as I saw a documentary about them and the greyhound type dog featured in a lot of the early pictures.

Yes, Jacksparrow. That's a picture of V's eldest, Princess Victoria Louise. Landseer was a Court favourite and painted all 9 of 'em.

On further research I find that the bird in question isn't a collie dove at all but a barbary dove which may have been brought back from Africa as a pet.
So that's the end of that then .......

I still can't get the painting to show up

Three minutes later: able to view it now - certainly looks like a collie

Glad you're able to view it, Nuthatch 'cos it's very interesting in an ornithological sort of way.