Green Comet

I was standing at the window looking at the snowdrifts in our back yard. There were some birds at the feeder and one of them – a Eurasian ring-neck dove – came hurtling toward the house. It flew under the deck and straight into the window, bounced off, turned in the air and flew away. It didn’t fly very far before plunging into the snow, which was fairly dense, having been drifted, but quite dry. That’s something I’ve never seen before. We have burrowing owls here, but not burrowing doves, as far as I know.

The bird was completely invisible, the only sign a small patch of disturbed snow where it went in. I watched, hoping to see it struggle out of the snow and fly away. Nothing happened. Naturally, I wondered whether it was stunned, or worse, from its encounter with the window. Maybe it was down there under the snow, dazed and slowly suffocating. After a few minutes I got my coat and boots on and went out to see.

You can see where I tromped down the snow working my way out to the impact crater. When I got close enough I bent over to brush the snow away with my hand. As soon as I touched the snow, the dove burst out of there, making me rear back as it came up. With its wings clacking together, it pivoted and flew away, disappearing beyond the neighbor’s yard. I guess it was just resting, unlike a certain Norwegian Blue parrot.

rjb