Jos Ashpole from the RSPB reflects on a growing partnership for turtle doves between the UK and the Netherlands. While we are now in the depths of winter, in this blog we’ll head back to a beautiful summer’s day when my colleague Tony Morris and I set out for the green Suffolk countryside. Our travels […]
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Upper Wensum Cluster Farm Group- feeding trials update
By Eliza Emmett – Upper Wensum Cluster Farm Group’s advisor The influential work of the Upper Wensum Cluster Farm Group continues to grow and develop. The landscape-scale conservation project now consists of 22 farmers and covers more than 9,000 hectares of the cherished Upper Wensum river valley in Norfolk. In our spring blog, I shared […]
Continue readingHinterland – Garden
In the final instalment of Jonny Rankin’s series on ‘hinterland’ habitats for turtle doves, he celebrates the garden. Having celebrated scrub and quarry, the last of my hinterland habitats is garden. As a loud and proud turtle dove advocate, I occasionally receive invitations to see turtle doves on people’s land, sometimes even in gardens. On this […]
Continue readingHinterland – Quarry
In the second of his series of blogs celebrating the turtle dove, Jonny Rankin recounts an unforgettable discovery. Just days after my first turtle dove of the year on the forest edge, I took the opportunity to walk around a nature reserve adjacent to a working quarry, looping around the northern edge of the reserve […]
Continue readingHinterland – Scrub
In the first of three blogs about turtle dove habitats, Jonny Rankin celebrates scrub and potentially one of his bird watching highlights of the year. My first turtle dove of the year was adjacent to a beautiful cottage – a cottage deep in thick cover in a section of treed scrub on the forest edge […]
Continue readingUpper Wensum Cluster Farm Group- How are we working towards Turtle Dove conservation?
The Upper Wensum Cluster Farm Group is a landscape scale conservation project set in the beautiful Upper Wensum river valley. A rare and precious chalk bed river, the group of 21 farmers (covering over 9,000ha) has a defined set of objectives to help preserve and enhance this important landscape. Along with working towards water and […]
Continue readingWith a little help from our friends
Jos Ashpole Turtle doves in decline Spring is now certainly on its way. Blossom is starting to appear in our hedgerows and it won’t be long until the wintery greys make way for the vibrant greens and warm yellows of spring and summer. This can mean only one thing – the turtle doves are on […]
Continue readingFarmers and funders give turtle doves a lifeline in 2018
Laurinda Luffman, RSPB Trusts and Foundations Manager New figures show plight of the turtle dove The latest figures from the government show that farmland bird populations are continuing to decline (by a further 7% between 2011-2016). Of all the farmland species, the turtle dove has seen the most dramatic fall. Numbers of this precious summer […]
Continue readingFarmers take emergency action for turtle doves
This summer Operation Turtle Dove has supported farmers in providing supplementary food for turtle doves throughout the bird’s remaining strongholds during the breeding season. This new tactic follows recent results from a two year trial which showed that when best practice is followed, putting out supplementary feed for turtle doves does not exacerbate issues related […]
Continue readingWorking on the land for turtle dove conservation
The issues facing turtle doves are complex and long in the making, fully understanding these issues has itself proved difficult. The new turtle dove Species Action Plan brings together all of the latest research and on the ground knowledge alongside the necessary steps to safeguard the very existence of this species. For Operation Turtle Dove […]
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