A bit of a 'coo'

TURTLE DOVE NUMBERS INCREASE ACROSS EUROPE

Turtle Doves, the smaller and daintier relatives of Collared Doves and Woodpigeons with a beautiful chestnut checkerboard pattern on their wings and black and white stripes on their necks, have been having a tough time over recent years. Often featured in art, literature and our cultural heritage their distinctive 'purring' or 'turr-turr' call, from whence they were named, has been deafeningly silent the length and breadth of our countryside as well as across Europe.

Unfortunately, many have been shot overseas as they made their migratory way to and from Africa and the ones that have made it across the channel have had fewer suitable areas to breed. However, according to figures from an international team of scientists the numbers of European Turtle Doves increased by 25% between 2021 and 2023 across Western Europe. This escalation equates to an additional 400,000 breeding pairs and is due to a hunting ban which was put in place across France, Spain and Portugal and which has now been extended for a fourth year in a row!

Turtle Doves only visit the UK in spring and summer, having flown thousands of miles to reach us, and dodging the bullets and they are the fastest declining bird in the UK with numbers down by 98% in just 48 years. But here the decrease is almost entirely to do with changes in agricultural practices over the 20th century leading to a loss of habitat and lack of food resources such as seed food. Although mainly restricted to east and south-east England with Sussex considered one of its last strongholds (there have been good signs of recovery at Knepp), Operation Turtle Dove, a partnership between the RSPB, Natural England, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Fair to Nature, is dedicated to helping the UK's breeding population of Turtle Doves to recover.

Operation Turtle Dove's team of advisors have been encouraging people to create Turtle Dove habitat on areas such as farms, orchards, golf courses and community greenspaces.

Rick Bayne, Senior Project Manager for Operation Turtle Dove, said: "The recent increase in turtle dove numbers across Western Europe as a whole is really exciting news, making our conservation efforts here in the UK for these birds all the more worthwhile."