On the Wildside: The stock dove is a bird on the rise
Over the last year the stock dove has changed its status in my wildlife garden from a very occasional and also rather shy visitor to being a regular. It also appears that there is a pair that now come to feed together on a routine basis.
Unlike the huge, overweight, brash woodpigeons which persistently hoover-up the bird food and produce copious amounts of pigeon poop that sets like rock, the stock dove is a more pleasant and subtle presence in the garden. Richard Mabey and Mark Cocker in their wonderful book ‘Birds Britannica’ describe the stock dove as having, ‘... a soft, subtle beauty and an intriguing gift for anonymity’. This does indeed capture the essence of the bird very well, and it is anonymous in that it is frequently overlooked and unnoticed. And yet, this bird is close behind the now rare turtle dove in terms of being an attractive member of the pigeon family, with its soft, dark eyes, and as Mabey and Cocker state, ‘…none of the pale-eyed ‘meanness’ occasionally suggested by the wood pigeon’. In combination with a perfectly round-shaped head its dark eyes produce a very pleasant, benign appearance.
The overall colouration is of grey and black but suffused with pink on the breast and iridescent green on the nape and the neck, and the result is a delicate-looking bird that exudes warmth and charm. They nest in tree-holes such as in the old beech trees of Graves Park, close to where I live, but will also seek out tangles of old ivy and such habitats. Their song is described as a rhythmic, almost pumping, throaty coo such as is often lost amidst other bird vocalisations. This is, ‘...not so much a song as a comforting background noise, like the sound of central heating on a winter’s afternoon’. The Victorian naturalist W.H. Hudson considered the sound of the stock dove to be the most attractive of pigeon songs.
My pair of doves seem almost inseparable as they struct up and down the garden path and patio.
Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer & broadcaster on wildlife & environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected]; follow Ian’s blog (https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress.com/) and Twitter @IanThewildside