Rick Bayne, Senior Project Manager for Operation Turtle Dove, reflects on good news for the species. It’s that time of year again when anticipation builds around the imminent return of migrant bird species that use the UK to breed and raise their young. Whilst Chiffchaffs already seem to be everywhere and there are widespread reports […]
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Double your impact for Turtle Doves
5th December 2024 6pm update: We’ve just hit £60,000! Thanks to everyone that has donated so far. Please help us hit our £100,000 target by next Tuesday! Getting the UK ‘Turtle Dove Ready’ Between 3 and 10 December, we’re joining the Big Give’s Christmas Challenge. That means for one week only, your festive donation to […]
Continue readingA year in the life of… a turtle dove
Dr Susana Requena from the RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science explains how new satellite tracking technology is giving us an insight into the life of the turtle dove. Tracking and mapping With continuing advances in tracking technology, our capacity to track birds keeps breaking new barriers. One species that has benefited from smaller tags and […]
Continue readingTurtle Dove Action Plan – it’s just the start
In the last in our series of blogs about the Action Plan for turtle doves, Ian Fisher and Joscelyne Ashpole from the RSPB reflect on the work that has gone into the plan, celebrate the ‘Eyes on the Flyways’ conference and look to the future. For the last two years we have been pulling together […]
Continue readingGiving Turtle Doves an extra helping (hand) – supplementary feeding
One of the top priorities within the European Action Plan for Turtle Dove is a call for emergency measures to provide more seed food for these birds on their breeding grounds. Guy Anderson of the RSPB, describes a quick and easy way this can be done. We have known for some time that shortage of […]
Continue readingAsking questions and trialling solutions – the importance of science in our work to save the turtle dove
In our series of inspirational Action Plan blogs, Tony Morris from RSPB highlights how research is a key component in the conservation toolkit for our work on turtle dove. I am Tony Morris, the Principal Research Manager at RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science. Although my job is now largely desk-bound, once upon a time, not […]
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Celebrating a new chapter for turtle dove conservation
On the day of the ‘Eyes on the Flyways’ conference where a suite of action plans, including the Turtle Dove Action Plan, will be celebrated, Carles Carboneras from the RSPB reflects on the work that has gone into making the Action Plan for turtle doves a reality and highlights the next important steps. My name […]
Continue readingPhotographing the RSPB Titchwell Turtle Doves
As the weather gets steadily colder, and the turtle doves that breed in the UK are all heading back south for warmer climes, Les Bunyan tells us about his summer spent photographing these fantastic birds, and his hopes that they return next year. “I’m lucky enough to be a volunteer at Titchwell and can be […]
Continue readingTurtle 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 […]
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 […]
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