24 June 2022
James Cartlidge MP, the turtle dove champion, ventured out with the RSPB at the break of dawn in the hopes of spotting a turtle dove. Despite their rapidly shrinking British range, areas in and around James’ constituency are some of our last hotspots for the turtle dove and the search party toured a selection of locales where these elusive birds were recently seen. Unfortunately for James and the group, despite their early rise maximising their chances of hearing and potentially seeing a turtle dove, their search was without success. All was not lost however, as throughout the expedition James got to see first-hand the types of habitats and environmental land management measures necessary to support turtle doves.
Turtle doves are becoming rarer in the UK, with their breeding populations here having declined by 98% over the past 50 years. The two main drivers behind their decline are a shortage of suitable seed-rich habitats on their breeding grounds and unsustainable hunting practices along their migratory route through Western Europe. These factors can be remedied through encouraging agri-environmental schemes that incentivise high-quality and accessible seed-rich habitat for turtle doves, ideally near scrub and overgrown hedges for nesting and shallow ponds for drinking, and through measures that lower levels of hunting along their flyways. It is important that both issues are addressed in tandem, as fixing one without the other is unlikely to lead to turtle dove population recovery.
