Every spring we wait in anticipation for the first purring call of the turtle dove. For many, it’s a sure sign that spring is here. However, over the years it has become harder and harder to hear the familiar turr turr call as numbers of turtle doves has continued to dwindle. The results of a […]
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Turtle Dove Supplementary Feeding
Dr Tony Morris, Senior Conservation Scientist, and Laura Wright, Research Assistant with the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, tell us about the research they’ve been doing on supplementary feeding for turtle doves. Why do we need to do anything? Between 1995 and 2004 the number of breeding turtle doves in the UK fell by […]
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Jonny Rankin’s Dove Step date with Angela & RSPB scientists
On the 14th July I spent a day in the field with RSPB scientists tracking a satellite tagged Turtle Dove 161002, also known as Angela. Angela was one of ten Turtle Doves satellite tagged in 2016, but the only one still transmitting by the summer of 2017. Bird 161005, named Lawford, after its favoured village […]
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Lawford the turtle dove returns home
Dr John Mallord, Senior Conservation Scientist for the RSPB, has some great news about Lawford, one of the satellite tagged turtle doves… With all the cold weather we have been experiencing in the last two weeks, you’d be forgiven for believing that we are stuck in an extended winter. Yet the evidence is there that […]
Continue readingAn update on the tagged Turtle Doves
Guest blog by Dr John Mallord, Senior Conservation Scientist, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science Titan our 2014-16 satellite tagged Turtle dove was a superstar; the first UK-breeding turtle dove that was followed on its entire migratory journey from his breeding grounds in Suffolk to Mali and back again – and back to Mali a second […]
Continue readingMeet Myrtle the turtle dove
One of Titan’s successors, Bird 161004, has a new name! He will from now on be known as Myrtle. Myrtle was the most popular name in the naming competition run by RSPB Science. Thank you to Claire Wilson, Anne Tomma, Howard Bayley, Jez Elkin, Hannah Gumbrell, Katy Spedding, Halina Morton, Susanna Allen, Ella Wooley, Julie […]
Continue readingUpdate on Titan
RSPB volunteer Heather allowed the RSPB Science team to catch and tag a turtle dove in her garden in 2014. Heather named the bird Titan, from Greek mythology – a god of strength, based on her observations of the dominant nature of the bird as he fed and chased females in her garden. Titan has […]
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