a naturalist in the family

[Connie Clark]

Hi,
 
I had an awesome experience this past weekend - I joined my cousins at a reception for a long lost cousin.  Gary is the son of my dad's brother killed in WWII.  He was 18 months old when his 29-year-old dad was killed by a sniper during the Battle of the Bulge. His mother did not stay close to her in-laws, so we didn't see Gary much growing up - just a glimpse at funerals.  Gary's mom chose also to say very little about her deceased husband. There is a whole story behind that, I'm sure.
 
Gary was all ears to my older cousins who could tell him anything about his dad. We had a whole box of letters to the family from Jim David during his short 8 months of infrantry duty in France and Germany to give to Gary.  He was moved.  All too sad, really, even the 'good' wars where we win, produce long and deep personal losses.
 
Getting to know him, I found out that Gary who is about the same age as me, is a naturalist, and writes a regular column in the Houston Chronicle (which I have read for years, and never actually snapped that he might be my cousin Gary Clark). My brother, in the interest of geneology did the successful internet research to locate and contact him.
 
Gary's wife is a professional nature photographer and photographer teacher.  They are both avid bird watchers, and were happy to know that there is another bird watcher in the family. We all agreed that we would get together for a birding trip soon.  How cool is that! They are taking off for a couple of weeks vacationing, taking notes and photos in Big Bend this weekend. They said that their lives revolve around the weekly column.
 
Here is his latest - I couldn't get her great photo of the collared dove off the Chronicle's internet site, but found a link to her website. She has 15 photographers that she says take nature photos and sell through her service.
http://www.kathyadamsclark.com/
Pretty neat nature photos
There is a book also: Texas Wildlife Photos (I think that's the title), published last year.
 
 
The welcome mat is out /Eurasian collared doves find a home in Houston 

By GARY CLARK 


Eurasian collared doves have been expanding their range for centuries through natural dispersal and human introduction. These natives of India began showing up in Turkey about 400 years ago, then moved into China and Japan. They arrived in Europe in the early 1900s, in Britain by midcentury. 
A caged-bird breeder brought Eurasian collard doves to the Bahamas in the mid-1970s, and those birds were released into the wild during a burglary. They spread to Florida by the late 1980s and to Louisiana by the early 1990s. The Texas Birds Records Committee first documented the birds in 1995, and today they are in every coastal county and throughout the state, though more prevalent in urban than in rural areas. 
When the doves started showing up in Houston, many observers believed they were ringed turtledoves, which look similar. Those popular cage-birds are also non-native to the United States, and escaped individuals established a limited but persistent wild population in Houston some years back. 
Detecting the difference between the two doves requires a careful eye, because both are sandy-gray and have a thin black half-collar on the back of the neck. But the Eurasian collared dove has a gray belly, pale gray under-tail feathers and black at the base of the under-tail. The ringed turtledove is smaller and has a white belly, white under-tail feathers and limited black at the base of the tail. 
The two doves also differ in their primary feathers, the flight feathers extending from the middle of the wing outward. In flight, the Eurasian collared dove shows dark-brown primaries, while the ringed turtledove shows pale-brown primaries. 
Their songs are similar. To my ear, the Eurasian collared dove has a rather harsh three-noted ca-coo-coo sound, whereas the ringed turtledove has a softly melodic two-noted coo-kroo sound. 
Eurasian collared doves are becoming common all over Texas and are already common in other Gulf Coast states. Part of the reason for their expansion is readily available food in the form of seed in backyard bird feeders and waste grain in farming communities. Like most other doves, they're primarily seed-eaters. 
It is unclear what effect Eurasian collared doves will have on native mourning, Inca and white-winged doves. Where I've observed a mix of native doves with Eurasian collared doves, the latter often dominate the feeding area, especially at the expense of the smaller Inca doves.


		
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