Purrrrring with pleasure

I’m pleased to tell you that I have seen Turtle Dove in Northamptonshire this year. It was only just in Northants but it was a Turtle Dove. When I did a bird survey for my favourite local farmer, many years ago, I was delighted to find that there was a Turtle Dove purrrrrring on his…

Butterflies are so easy

On Saturday I had another visit to Duncan Farrington’s excellent farm. I was on the look-out for Turtle Doves as they used to be here but I haven’t seen, or heard, one for years in this spot.  Duncan’s farm looks good for Turtle Doves to me – plenty of thick nesting cover on the old…

Turtle doves under fire

I haven’t seen a turtle dove in Northamptonshire this year and it seems I am not the only one. This was a bird that I didn’t see in the north Somerset countryside where I grew up.  It was only when we came on holiday to East Anglia that I saw my first turtle dove –…

Farmland birds reach lowest point since records began

The latest (up to 2010) official figures for the UK Farmland Bird Index (and for that for England alone where things are just a tad worse) were published on Tuesday.  They show a further decline in numbers of the suite of 19 farmland birds which brings the index to its lowest ever point.  Take a…