July was mainly a month of insects. Golden-Ringed Dragonfly at Powerstock Common, Scarlet Darter at Silverlake, Purple Emperor at Hatfield Forest. Enormous numbers of Silver-Washed Fritillary. Some birds did sneak in; Nightjars in Weeting Forest, then towards the end of the month Spotted Redshanks at Old Hall Marshes, Pectoral Sandpiper at Abberton, and even a Night Heron at Rye Meads. But pride of place goes to at least 3 Turtle Doves at Fingringhoe Wick.
A number of explanations as to why the Turtle Dove population has collapsed have been advanced; Muntjac deer eating undergrowth. Agricultural changes removing areas of seed. But surely the obvious one is the mass shooting of Turtle Doves on spring migration. And now a moratorium of sorts is in operation, the numbers are slowly recovering.
A comment on X about how the Turtle Doves sing and display to each other put in my mind the notion that the dove is a colony breeder; not a tight colony, but a loose colony of spaced out pairs. Hence the decline has left a handful of scattered colonies. As numbers increase what seems to be happening is these colonies get more birds, rather than more colonies being established. So our local outpost at Fingringhoe Wick saw possibly up to five Turtle Doves singing this year. An impressive number, and for us on 14th July an impressive sound to be stood in the centre of purring Doves and to see one in a clearing on a branch singing away. Fingers crossed this recovery has legs and we see the population of this gorgeous bird spreading its wings.
No comments:
Post a Comment