EU acts to protect future of bird facing extinction in UK

European commission moves to halt loss of habitat for migrating turtle doves

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels

Thu 25 Jul 2019 13.13 BST Last modified on Thu 25 Jul 2019 17.00 BST

The European commission has launched legal action that could protect one of the best-known birds of the English countryside from extinction.

The turtle dove – once a familiar sound of summer in south-east England – has been in steep decline since the 1970s because of intensive farming across Europe.

The birds are now listed as vulnerable by BirdLife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations, and are on the brink of extinction in the UK. With their mottled chestnut and black wings, the dainty birds feature in Shakespeare, the Bible and were the true love’s gift on the second day of Christmas.

Ariel Brunner, the senior head of policy at BirdLife International, said the turtle dove was “on life support” in England and could disappear from the English countryside by 2021 without urgent action across Europe. “The turtle dove is an iconic species that was providing the soundtrack of spring since the times of the Bible’s Song of Songs. But it is now racing to extinctionbecause of unsustainable agriculture and hunting.”

The commission announced on Thursday that France and Spain had not done enough to protect the birds from habitat loss and hunting during their migration from the Sahel to their breeding grounds in northern Europe. Spain hosts more than half the EU’s breeding population of turtle doves, while France has another 10%, meaning conservation efforts in those countries will be critical for the future of the birds.

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Campaign to create turtle dove habitats in North Yorkshire

6 May 2019

Farmers in North Yorkshire are being encouraged to create habitats in a bid to save the turtle dove.

Population of the small bird has declined in the UK by 95% since the 1970s, according to the RSPB.

The North York Moors National Park Authority, which is running the project, said there were fewer than 100 nesting birds in Yorkshire.

Project Officer Richard Baines said: "We've now got to a point where we're rescuing the species."

The North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project, which involves several organisations including the RSPB, Forestry Commission and Scarborough Borough Council, is training land owners and encouraging them to plant specific seeds to increase areas of habitat for the birds.

Turtle doves feed on seeds including those of fumitory, knotgrass, chickweed, oilseed rape and cereal grains.

"We want farmers to sow a special seed mix by broadcasting it on a special plot they've created, which will grow specific flowers that will come up the following year and provide fantastic food for turtle doves," said Mr Baines.

The RSPB said a lack of seed food on farmland in the summer and habitat loss had resulted in a reduction of nesting attempts during the birds' breeding season.

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Lifting the ban on hunting for turtle dove will go against EU policy, BirdLife warns Prime Minister

BirdLife writes to Prime Minister, insisting the turtle dove should be protected all year round

22 March 2019, 12:58pm

by Laura Calleja

BirdLife Malta has written to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat objecting to any changes to the spring hunting season in terms of dates, and also huntable species.

This is in response to recommendations made by the Ornis Committee earlier in the week, to the government for the season to be opened between the 10 and 30 April.

The NGO said that a hunting season for quail during these dates will coincide with the peak migration of the turtle dove. "This will only serve as a smokescreen for hunters to illegally target the turtle dove," the bird conservation group insisted.

Moreover, it said the dates proposed for the 2019 spring hunting season had been moved further backwards when compared to last year’s, which saw the spring hunting season open from 1 to 21 April. The new dates will overlap further onto the period when turtle doves migrate over the Maltese islands.

In the letter, Birdlife referred to the report presented by the hunting lobby calling for the lifting of the moratorium on the hunting of turtle dove in spring. The Ornis Committee will decide on the proposal by the hunting lobby at a meeting next Tuesday.

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Britain's most prolific bird egg thief single-handedly put the future of nightjars and turtle doves at risk, RSPB says after court case

12 OCTOBER 2018 • 3:07PM

Britain's most prolific bird egg thief single-handedly put the future of nightjars and turtle doves at risk, the RSPB has said.

Daniel Lingham, 65, is facing jail after illegally collecting more than 5,000 bird eggs, including a number of endangered species.

Lingham, who pleaded guilty to five offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, was caught after a member of the public told police she had seen a man “head-to-toe in camouflage gear" picking eggs up off the ground at Cawston Heath in Norfolk, the court heard on Friday.

Officers then searched his home address and found tubs containing eggs under his bed and in the kitchen and living room, with many of them handwritten on.

Colette Harpe, prosecuting, said officers found a total of 5,266 eggs of species including nightingales, nightjars, turtle doves, chiffchaffs, little-ringed plovers, woodlarks and kingfishers.

She said Lingham told the officers who arrested him: "I've been a silly man, haven't I?"

Speaking outside the court, RSPB senior investigator Mark Thomas Lingham’s crimes would have a “huge impact” on the local, regional and national populations of some of Britain’s “rarest and most threatened birds, including nightjar and turtle dove.

He said: "At a time when egg collecting is on the decline, Lingham is the most prolific egg collector in recent years.

"It's very rare that an egg collection of this magnitude comes to light these days.

"Lingham has taken significant numbers of eggs from some of our rarest and most threatened birds, including nightjar and turtle dove.

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Garden see influences young turtle doves' survival chance

June 21, 2018, University of Lincoln

Young turtle doves raised on a diet of seeds from non-cultivated arable plants are more likely to survive after fledging than those relying on food provided in people's gardens, new research into Britain's fastest declining bird species has shown.

Ecologists at the University of Lincoln, UK, investigated the dietary habits of adult and nestling European turtle doves – an IUCN Red List Threatened Species – breeding in the UK, using DNA analysis of faecal samples. They found significant associations between the body condition and the diet of the bird.

Nestling turtle doves still being fed by their parents were found to thrive on seeds foraged from non-cultivated arable plants such as scarlet pimpernel and chickweed, but the birds were in poorer condition when their diet was high in seeds provided by humans in back gardens or public spaces. In contrast, adult body condition was better when more cultivated seeds such as wheat, oil seed rape and barley were present in the diet.

Data collected for the study, which was carried out in collaboration with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the University of Sheffield and Cardiff University, was compared with the results of previous studies carried out in the 1960s and 1990s. It revealed a fundamental shift in the diet of turtle doves, showing that the birds are now relying more heavily on food found in gardens, such as sunflower and niger seeds, than they did 50 years ago.

As the UK's fastest declining bird species, the results of the study have important implications for conservation strategies to save the turtle dove. Previous research has shown that nestling birds with better body condition are more likely to survive after fledging and strategies should be developed to provide the correct diet for the bird at each stage of its life.

Read more at: 

There and back again: satellite tagged turtle dove returns home

Last modified: 11 May 2017

RSPB scientists have succeeded in mapping the complete migratory route of a British turtle dove for only the second time, after a bird fitted with a tracking device in East Anglia last summer arrived back in the UK this week.

The bird, named Lawford after the Essex village where he was fitted with his tracker last summer, crossed the channel to arrive back in the UK on Friday 5 May.

After a layover in Croydon and short detour via Suffolk, Lawford made his way to within two miles of where he was first found in 2016, adding to evidence that is helping scientists understand the importance of turtle doves’ faithfulness to their established breeding territories.

The turtle dove is Europe’s only migratory dove. Every autumn they cross the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara desert to reach their wintering grounds in Africa, returning to their European breeding grounds in the spring.

Since leaving Essex in September last year, Lawford has travelled over 6,000 miles, stopping in (or flying over) six other countries: France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Mali.

Turtle doves’ return to the UK traditionally marks the arrival of spring, but the sound of their purring ‘turr-turr’ calls is becoming increasingly scarce in most parts of the British countryside.

The number of turtle doves breeding in Britain has plummeted since the 1970s – a trend that has continued in recent decades – making them one of the UK’s fastest declining birds.

Operation Turtle Dove, a partnership project that aims to reverse turtle doves’ decline in the UK, has seen conservationists working closely with farmers and landowners to provide breeding and feeding habitat for turtle doves in areas of the East and South-East of England where they still breed.

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Turtle Doves tagged by RSPB to reveal migration secrets

Posted on: 31 Aug 2016

Six European Turtle Doves are being satellite-tracked from their breeding grounds in Britain to their wintering grounds in West Africa to better understand why the population is declining so rapidly.

The scheme parallels the British Trust for Ornithology's Common Cuckoo tracking sheme which has resulted in many revelations about the species' migration strategy and survival rates. It also comes hot on the heels of news that funding for the Countryside Stewardship scheme which has helped turtle doves in the recent past will remain in place for the next couple of years at least, after a guarantee by DEFRA.

According to the recent UK Breeding Bird Survey, the number of European Turtle Doves has declined by 93 per cent since 1994. Last year, for the first time, the RSPB revealed the complete migration route of a satellite-tagged British breeding turtle dove named Titan, which provided valuable data in the conservation fight to help save the species from extirpation from the country.

Titan’s satellite signal was lost earlier this year when the bird was in Mali, and now the RSPB in partnership with Operation Turtle Dove (OTD) are following six more.

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Malta should consider moratorium on turtle dove hunting, says EU

European commission investigating violations of the EU bird directive after Malta allows 5,000 turtle doves to be shot, says Karmenu Vella

Arthur Neslen

Tuesday 3 May 201616.54 BSTLast modified on Wednesday 4 May 201613.45 BST

 Malta should consider a temporary ban on the shooting of turtle doves which are being driven to extinction by hunting and other pressures, the EU’s environment chief has said.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) put turtledoves on its Red List of species threatened with extinction for the first time last October.

But after a referendum on the issue, Malta said that 5,000 turtle doves could be shot during the country’s two-week spring hunting season, which finished on 30 April.

Karmenu Vella, environment commissioner, said that the commission was already investigating Malta for violations of the EU’s birds directive and would go to court if necessary.

“I have also urged the Maltese government to consider a moratorium on the hunting of turtle doves,” said Vella, who is himself Maltese.

It was not immediately clear whether the commissioner’s appeal was communicated directly to government officials, or if he was merely referring to an interview given to Maltese media over the weekend.

Last week, the IUCN wrote to Vella urging action on a Maltese exemption from the law which allows quail and turtledove shoots. The conservation agency said it broke the birds directive’s rules which forbid hunting species that have an “unfavourable conservation status” or “very low population levels”.

The letter said: “In order to save the turtle dove from a real threat of extinction, IUCN has requested the Commission to apply an urgent moratorium on spring hunting of the species in Malta. This should remain in place until the sustainability and recovery of the turtle dove [populations] can be clearly demonstrated.”

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Malta gives go ahead to shooting of 5,000 endangered turtle doves

Conservationists urge EU to take action against Malta for continuing the spring hunt despite the birds recently being added to ‘red list’ of species at risk of being wiped out

Patrick Barkham

Wednesday 16 March 2016 14.10 GMT

Last modified on Thursday 17 March 201612.27 GMT

Hunters in Malta will be permitted to shoot 5,000 turtle doves this spring despite the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently adding the migratory bird to the “red list” of species at risk of being wiped out.

The Maltese government, the only EU member to allow recreational spring hunting, said it was taking “special measures” to minimise the impact of its shoot on the bird’s plummeting population, cutting the shooters’ allowance from 11,000 birds.

But conservationists said continuing the spring hunt went against the best scientific advice and appealed for the EU to take action against Malta.

“The government has taken the wrong political decision,” said Mark Sultana, chief executive of Birdlife Malta. “Rather than giving weight to the scientific data they opted to open a season with limitations. We do not believe that there is enough will and resources to ensure those limitations will be kept.”

The turtle dove population has fallen by 96% in Britain since 1970 and its numbers have fallen across Europe by more than a third in the last 16 years.

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Turtle doves are in decline but now an MEP could help save them

By Cambridge News | Posted: September 16, 2015

The RSPB's Rupert Masefield tells how there's a new advocate working to help an endangered bird clinging on here.

When I'm not at work, I like to spend as much of my free time as possible exploring the countryside around East Anglia and I feel privileged to have had some pretty special (in my view) wildlife experiences: seeing and listening to singing skylarks soaring above farmland, and watching reed warblers flitting back and forth from their nest deep in the reeds while I paddled past in my canoe this summer.

But my forays into the countryside in search of nature this summer have also brought disappointment. This year, I haven't seen or heard a single solitary turtle dove, let alone two of them. And this is a bird that used to fill the countryside with its colourful appearance and soothing call.

Admittedly, I haven't made a special trip to one of the few remaining sites where there are known to be turtle doves breeding, but isn't it worrying that I should have to make such an effort to see a bird that 50 years ago bred here in its hundreds of thousands?

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New techniques to help turtle doves

Posted on: 14 Mar 2015

New research conducted on six farms across East Anglia has recommended a new agri-environment management option that could help in the recovery of British turtle dove populations.

The study, carried out by the RSPB and part-funded by Natural England through its Species Recovery Programme, found that cultivating a mix of plant species in the autumn creates a habitat rich in seed that is easily accessible – ideal for European Turtle Doves, which feed on seeds present on or close to the ground. The authors also suggest that light cultivation or cutting during spring would better prevent the plots from becoming too overgrown and, therefore, unsuitable for turtle doves.

European Turtle Dove has declined by 88 per cent in the UK since 1995, with one cause for this decline thought to be the lack of seed from arable plants, which historically formed the bulk of the species' diet during the breeding season, resulting in fewer nesting attempts.

This latest research into the management of bespoke seed mixes to provide food for turtle doves is under consideration as a part of a modified version of the nectar-flower-mix option under the new Countryside Stewardship scheme, and could be pivotal in providing food for turtle doves on farmland across the UK.

Patrick Barker, an arable farmer in Westhorpe, Suffolk, said: "It’s been great to be involved in this research and to find out how we can give turtle doves a hand. What was particularly striking was that the areas they prefer don’t look as you’d expect. I hope that our work here will encourage other farmers to do the same, and that this will help turtle doves return to the countryside.

"For example, we learned that bare patches on the ground among the vegetation give them space to land and move around. I hope that our work here will encourage other farmers to do the same, and that this will help turtle doves return to the countryside."

This new management option is part of a wider ‘turtle dove package’, deployed within the Higher Level Stewardship scheme agreements on farms supporting turtle doves (or with turtle doves nearby), which seeks to provide foraging habitat in proximity to their nests. The other options in this package include cultivated margins, fallows that promote seeding plants, and scrub and hedgerow management for nesting. The options a farmer selects will depend on local land characteristics and farming practices.

Tony Morris, Senior Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, said: "This research helps our understanding of how to provide food for turtle doves on farmland where the original sources of seed food have long since vanished but without unduly disrupting modern agriculture.

"Agri-environment schemes offer the best and perhaps last hope for this iconic species. We're hopeful that, together with farmers and our partners in Operation Turtle Dove, we can reverse the decline of this bird and secure its long-term future in Britain."

Jenny Dunn, Conservation Scientist, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, said: "The results of this research show that it is possible to create a 'farmed' habitat structure similar to that used by turtle doves historically – an area with a patchy structure containing both seed-rich plants and bare ground to allow the doves to access the seed."


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New scheme to halt the catastrophic decline of Turtle Doves

Turtle Doves have declined by 95 per cent in the UK since 1970

Providing additional food sources could help halt the dramatic decline in turtle dove numbers, according to the British Ecological Society and the Société Française d’Ecologie.

At a recent conference, researchers from the two organisations outlined how agri-environment schemes that encourage farmers to include areas containing early-seeding arable plants on their land can provide crucial sources of food for many birds, including turtle doves.

By planting these seed-rich plants as widely as possible, they said, farmers may also help reduce the spread of parasites between the birds.

Dr Jenny Dunn and colleagues from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the University of Leeds have studied Turtle Doves across south east England over a four year period.

The research, funded jointly by RSPB and Natural England through the Action for Birds in England (AfBiE) partnership, seeks effective solutions for the bird that is in the fastest decline in England.

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RSPB names East of England as vital region for declining turtle dove species

Posted: September 18, 2014

By FLORENCE SNEAD

Communities across the East of England are being urged to come together to support the declining turtle dove species.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is highlighting the plight of the bird, which is currently halving in number every six years.

The Eastern region is a stronghold for vulnerable turtle dove populations in the UK, home to over 60 per cent of the summer breeding population.

Sam Lee, RSPB turtle dove conservation advisor in the East, said: The gentle purr of the turtle dove has become increasingly rare following rapid and sustained population declines.

"Across the region, we are working on developing urgent practical solutions and are heartened by how many individuals and communities are passionate about halting the decline of this iconic species."

In Cambridgeshire, the RSPB's Hope Farm develops and trials farming techniques that can produce food cost-effectively while creating valuable wildlife habitats.

If you have land on which you would like to create a habitat for turtle doves, contact the RSPB on 01603 660066.

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Conservationists and marksmen of Malta battle over annual bird hunt

Hunters try to block referendum on traditional spring shoot, while British volunteers help patrol countryside to protect birds

Patrick Barkham in Malta

The Guardian, Sunday 20 April 2014 17.41 BST

As dawn breaks over the sea and ancient stone churches turn pink, the morning's stillness is broken by volleys of gunfire. Tucked behind walls, sitting on armchairs in specially built turrets or else popping up from old stone sheds, Malta's marksmen open fire as migrating birds flap desperately for cover.

When it comes to bird hunts, this is one of Europe's more uneven contests. Birds flying over the islands of Malta on their annual migration to northern Europe must evade 31 licensed marksmen per square kilometre – 15 times more than in shooting-friendly France. On one day in 2013, more than 9,000 shots were logged by a conservation charity's observers.

Spring hunting is banned by the EU but the Maltese authorities obtain a exemption each year, enabling its 9,798 hunters to shoot 5,000 quail and 11,000 turtle doves, the latter a migratory bird whose British population has slumped by 95% since 1970.

But now a backlash is being felt. More than 44,000 Maltese citizens have signed a petition calling for a referendum on the traditional spring shoot.

And a flock of celebrity naturalists including Brian May, Chris Packham and Bill Oddie have swooped in, joining mostly British and Dutch volunteers patrolling the countryside at 5am each morning to monitor illegal shooting for the charity BirdLife Malta.

Packham will broadcast his confrontations with hunters on YouTube every day this week.

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Conservationists rally to protect turtle doves

CONSERVATIONISTS, farmers and wildlife enthusiasts in the south-east are rallying to the cause of one of England’s most threatened birds.

As reported, the British Trust for Ornithology’s latest Bird Atlas revealed that the turtle dove’s range has shrunk by 52 per cent between 1970 and 2010.

Now the RSPB is deploying a farm advisory team in the region to provide advice. This is part of Operation Turtle Dove, a partnership project between the RSPB, Conservation Grade, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Natural England.

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Farming for Turtle Doves

Posted on: 10 Sep 2013

To help reverse the fortunes of the ailing Turtle Dove, the RSPB is calling on landowners across the South-East to grow crops to help them.

They have asked farmers and freeholders to consider establishing pollen and nectar mixes targeted at the species as part of their Environmental Stewardship agreements, or even voluntarily.

Turtle Dove, a summer visitor to Britain, was once a common sight and sound across the rural South-East, but has undergone a rapid decline in numbers. The most recent figures show that its population has fallen by 86 per cent since 1994. The species no longer breeds in Wales and there are fears it could soon disappear as a breeding bird in England too, with only a few strongholds remaining in South-East England and East Anglia.

Hayley New, RSPB Agricultural Projects Officer for the South-East, said: “Turtle Dove numbers are drastically low, and the prospect of losing this beautiful bird from our shores is becoming increasingly real."

In response to Turtle Dove’s plight, the RSPB launched Operation Turtle Dove in May 2012, with support from Natural England, a three-year project to begin to reverse its decline. The cause of the population crash is not fully understood, but when they arrive in Britain to breed each spring they depend on small seeds from wild plants to get into breeding condition, and changes in farming practices mean these plants are now scarce.

Hayley New continued: “There are a number of options available to farmers: they can choose to sow Turtle Dove seed mix – which provides optimal foraging habitat – or to cultivate uncropped margins that allow arable weeds to flourish. Now is the perfect time to act and it would be great for farmers looking to help to get in touch for more advice on how to make these options work for them. This year we’ve implemented plots of the seed mix at several of our reserves across the South-East, including Northward Hill and Lydden Valley in Kent, and Pagham Harbour in West Sussex, and we hope to work with other landowners to achieve the same.

“The options will also benefit pollinating insects such as bumblebees and butterflies, which could also do with a helping hand in spring and summer. We are really proud of our wildlife-friendly farmers who are already doing fantastic work for wildlife and the environment through agri-environment schemes and voluntarily. Farming in this way can make a real difference to Turtle Dove and is necessary for its survival in England.

The general public have also played their part this summer with record numbers of calls to the Operation Turtle Dove sightings hotline (01603 697527). These calls are vital in making sure that advice is targeted to the right areas.

For further advice on helping Turtle Dove, please call Hayley New on 01273 763616 or email hayley.new@rspb.org.uk

North Kent birdwatchers urged to help save turtle dove from extinction

3:20pm Wednesday 15th May 2013 in News By Alan Woods

TWITCHERS in Dartford and Gravesend are being urged to save the turtle dove from extinction by reporting sightings of the elusive bird to the RSPB. 

Figures show the population of turtle doves has fallen by 84 per cent in the south east since 1995 and 93 per cent nationally since 1970. 

The RSPB estimates there could be less than 1,000 pairs left by 2020 and says a complete UK extinction as a breeding species was also “a real possibility.” 

Operation turtle dove has been re-launched for a second year by the charity, which is asking for members of the public to report sightings of the endangered bird. 

Last summer 425 calls were received, which helped to map where the birds are breeding and where to focus conservation efforts. 

RSPB south east farmland bird advisor Bruce Fowkes said: “It’s great that so many people are looking out for these birds and supported Operation turtle dove last year.

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