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 […]
Continue readingFlying Start – new hope for the Turtle dove
Joscelyne Ashpole from RSPB explains why there is new hope for the turtle dove across its migratory flyways. In ancient Greek mythology, the European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur was purported to be sacred to Demeter, goddess of the harvest and agriculture. As a species of cultivated areas and woodland, the Turtle-dove would have been a familiar farmland sight […]
Continue readingSussex farmer supporting turtle doves
Laurinda Luffman, RSPB chair of a migrant bird fundraising group, talks about a recent visit with farmer John Ford, to see his work to support turtle doves in Sussex Most of my days are office-based at the RSPB headquarters in Sandy, so it’s always a treat to be able to visit projects and meet the […]
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Just 48 hours until the Dove Step team embark on an epic walk to save the Turtle Dove
It is our pleasure to invite Jonny Rankin to give this guest blog today as he is busy making last minute preparations for his next incredible fundraising journey. I type this just 2 days away from our next Dove Step journey; our most daunting yet. We have deliberately made each fundraising effort something suitably […]
Continue readingMeet Francoise – the first Turtle Dove fitted with a GPS tag in its wintering grounds of Africa
This blog from the RSPB’s Technical Development officer, Nigel Butcher, was originally posted on the RSPB Community page. It was with some anxiety and emotion that I left my family early on the morning of the 14th November 2015. My bags were light in clothing but heavy with field kit from radio antennas to the […]
Continue readingBayer research farm involved in RSPB trial to help save turtle dove populations
This blog from Samantha Lee, the RSPB’s Turtle Dove Conservation Advisor in the East, was originally published in Bayer CropSciences’s Farming Matters blog… For those of a certain age, the sound of turtle doves purring away in the summer months was as much a sign of summer as blossoms on trees are of spring. […]
Continue readingFollowing Titan our satellite-tagged turtle dove in Suffolk
Guest blog by Dr John Mallord, Senior Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. As you may have guessed, now that you have put away your T-shirts and shorts, autumn is well and truly here. You have probably already seen swallows lined up on telegraph wires, readying themselves to head south. And our other migrant […]
Continue readingTurtle dove gets a political champion
Catherine Bearder MEP lends her support to protect the endangered turtle dove, which has suffered a 93% UK population decline since 1970. The turtle dove now has its own political representative in Europe. Last week Catherine Bearder became an advocate for the endangered bird, the first MEP in England to lend her political support to […]
Continue readingMigration mystery of UK’s fastest declining migrant bird solved!
In a UK science first the RSPB reveal UK breeding turtle dove migration route. The migration route of a UK breeding turtle dove has, for the first time, been revealed by the RSPB today – providing valuable data in the conservation fight to help save the species from UK extinction. Last August, the RSPB fitted a […]
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