LIers flock to dove species' rare sighting

A tiny, plump visitor from the South this week has birders at Captree State Park atwitter over what may be the first sighting of a common ground dove in New York State.

Normally found no further north than South Carolina, the 6.5-inch long bird was spotted on Sunday afternoon near a parking lot east of Captree Boat Basin. Word spread quickly among the local birding community, drawing dozens who watched the little dove forage for seeds and evade the unwelcome attentions of a feral cat.

"As soon as I entered the parking lot there was no question of where it was - half a dozen spotting scopes were there," said birder Bob Adamo, 72, of Riverhead.

Bird enthusiasts and experts said the sighting, while rare, was not entirely unexpected. A common ground dove was seen at Cape May, N.J., Friday, and the species has turned up as far north as Michigan and Nova Scotia.

Ornithologists call such birds "vagrants" that have wandered from their normal range. "It's a very interesting sighting because they ought to be thousands of miles away," said Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Shaibal Mitra of Bay Shore and fellow birder Patricia Lindsay were the first to spot the dove Sunday afternoon and took pictures to document the bird. It looks a bit like a stouter, half-pint version of a mourning dove - until it spreads its wings, revealing a rich, red flash of feathers.

Some birders attribute vagrant birds to weather fronts that literally blow them off course, while others believe they travel to extend their range in search of food, said Mitra, who teaches biology at the College of Staten Island.

Whatever the reason, Long Island is an excellent place to spot such rare birds. Mitra said they tend to stop along the barrier beach to feed or rest instead of heading out over the open ocean. "It's like a little highway of land birds," Mitra said.

The sighting won't be confirmed until the New York State Ornithological Association has reviewed documentation - probably next fall.