A ‘collared’ kind of beauty

I think it’s fair to say that the collared dove has been on my list for a little while now. I wrote previously about its turtle ‘cousin’, but, though it lacks the colours of those impressive wings, this more common dove really does own its collar.

I have quite an attachment to a pair of collared doves that seem to have made our cherry tree their home. Or, perhaps, a temporary resting place. They seem to drop-in at some point every day at the moment and just sleep or chill in the tree. There’s no nest or anything but I’m assuming they’re a couple. Occasionally they ‘mix it up’ and flap chaotically down to the fence and sit there for a while. Both of them. You can’t help but have a soft spot for that.

Since my partner and I moved to Shipston-on-Stour, I’ve seen loads of collared doves around – more than anywhere else I’ve lived. And, in addition to admiring their pale greys and browns (and their fabulous collar!), they really do make me laugh. It took me a little while to realise that it was the pretty, dainty collared dove that made the ridiculous sound I kept hearing outside. When it isn’t ‘cooing’, the call it makes is a very difficult sound to describe – it sounds panicked, alarmed and to the point. Almost ‘aggy’ I’d say. It’s as if I can imagine the collared dove saying “right you better get out of my way because I’m about to land. Seriously now! NOW!” as it plummets down from its perch in the tree. I was even on a video call with some staff during a virtual summer school recently and I heard the noise through the microphone of one of the student helpers – I nearly cried with laughter (I mean, I was quite tired!)

I even drew out a quick cartoon of a collared dove couple in the middle of lockdown. I wanted to capture the bond between these two doves and, though I think the cartoon did that, I also knew that the collared dove would have to feature again!

Now, the piece I ended up creating did in fact only feature one collared dove, rather than two. I decided to go a bit ‘out there’ and do something different so I didn’t want to over-complicate things! I’ve seen some amazing watercolour pieces recently that really capture the freedom of the paint. I’ve wanted to have a go at this for quite a while so I decided to go for it. Using these colours and just letting the water run really was liberating!!! Something I’ve only recently realised about watercolours is what the paint does really doesn’t matter. It literally doesn’t. You can just let the paint run into the water, into another colour and then BOOM – it does something you could never have done if you’d tried! And, best of all, it actually looks good!

The hardest bit was bringing the control back by using pen to finish it off – that was quite nerve-wrecking and I’d want to do it differently next time! But, overall, I felt my experiment had paid off and it’s even made it into the ‘Beautiful British Birds’ collection of my online shop! I even learnt something new – collared doves only made their way to the UK in the 1950s. Who knew?!