One lucky birder!!

Yes this really is a Turtle Dove. Got a call from a friend during the afternoon saying that she thought she had a Rufous or Oriental Turtle Dove in her garden. Now those are REAL rarities in Western Europe and usually get blown across here in the Winter.

Went across to hers after tea and there was this beauty sitting in her orchard. A European Turtle Dove, once a common farmland bird in the UK summer but in severe decline over recent decades. Indeed it is feared that it will be extinct withing the next 10 years if measures are not taken to help it.

The RSPB launched Operation Turtle Dove in May this year to study why this much loved and now rarely seen bird is suffering so badly. I have reported this sighting in the hope that it will help.

Turtle Doves are in this country for a very short time over the summer months, migrating to and from Africa. Isn't it a simply staggeringly beautiful bird???