Recently I spent a very interesting day with the RSPB discussing all things Turtle Dove. I learnt a great deal but it struck me that the RSPB also has a great deal to learn from the shooting community.

Together we agreed Turtle Doves need the following:

1 Native weed seeds particularly in spring and early
summer to get into breeding condition (not easy to come by early season).

2 Bare ground to land and walk into native weeds so they
can shake the seeds out of the plants (their very particular feeding method)

3 Scrub Blackthorn and Hawthorn areas to nest in.

4. Access to fresh water, particularly for fledgling
squabs who cannot cover the range the adults can to find it.

5. Adequate predator control to ensure nesting
success.

6. All this needs to happen on a landscape scale. Island
reserves are not enough.

I am lucky enough to shoot woodpigeons for crop protection on a stunning Norfolk Estate. In the days of set aside this area had a healthy population of Turtle Doves. As set aside disappeared so did the
Turtle Doves.

Last summer to my delight they were back in numbers.

The experimental field margin design the keeper's employ on the Norfolk estate has led to great success with wild English Partridges and pheasants.

Some are insect margins; some pollinator; some brood rearing; some seed margins. They have mown strips for birds to dry off and some have rotovated strips for birds to dust in. These strips also mitigate the stress caused to the chicks by hunting harriers and kites. The estate has nearly every UK species of raptor visiting at some point during the year. None are molested. The drying strips allow the chicks a chance to dry off morning
dew out of sight of the raptors. These strips also allow Turtle Doves to land and then feed.

The estate is also peppered with small ponds which not only serve as drinking areas for wild game but a few of the larger ones are used as flight ponds for duck.

This is why I saw more Turtle Doves in one afternoons' pigeon shooting last summer than they had on the entire RSPB reserve I visited.

The Turtle Dove has reportedly declined by an astonishing 91% since the 1995.

We have much to teach each other and little time to do it.

First published in the Eastern Daily Press, Feb 2018