Lone White Dove – Michigan Bird

One day while standing in one of my favorite Michigan wild life wetland bird photo spots…

A small white object appeared in my right peripheral vision, at first, I thought it was just another White Egret, so I didn’t really pay much attention.  However, the bird was much smaller and approaching very fast, much faster than an Egret. It turned out to be a pure white lone dove.  The white bird flew right in front of me, I totally missed an opportunity to get a picture and the bird quickly flew behind a dense green thicket. I couldn’t believe what just happened, first time ever shot of my life-time and I missed it! But, I waited several agonizing seconds with my finger on the camera trigger and sure enough it was as though the bird read my mind and decided to present me a second shot.  I barely got a couple of shots off as the dove made a sudden turn, this time heading in my direction.

I was surprised at the loud  wind-like sound the wings created as the dove made it’s second pass, this time flying directly overhead.

White Dove - Message in the Wind

This was a rather strange bird sighting in that I have never seen a dove in this particular wetland I had been visiting for ten years. This particular white dove was all alone–not flying in a dule with other doves and strangest of all, as the dove flew overhead, I panned as I did with so many other birds standing in this exact this same spot; when tracking a bird in flight such as kildeer, kingfisher, or mallard ducks, only this time it seems that the white dove had simply disappeared after flying overhead.  I pivoted, expecting to get a series of final tail shots and didn’t see the bird… nothing!  The dove was gone.

(I added the motion blur effect because the dove was rather close to a background of rather cluttered looking dark green foliage.)

Nature Photography – by Ike Austin