The Daws Hall Nature Reserve in Lamarsh has welcomed the return of turtle doves. It is the third year in a row the bird breed has retuned to the reserve. Almost half the size of the average wood pigeon, the speckled turtle dove is described by the reserve as an “iconic” migratory visitor to the UK. The bird is perhaps most familiar for its place in The Twelve Days of Christmas, where the turtle dove is a symbol for enduring love, most significant when found in a pair. But the reserve is warning the birds are becoming more endangered each year.
NATURESCOT
Golden Plovers breed on moorland before flying back south before winter
Working for Waders is a key initiative that is seeking to arrest the alarming decline in our wading bird population, writes Agnes Stevenson. They are an iconic feature of our coastline and estuaries and their long-legged and long-billed silhouettes appear too on lochs and lagoons, but the waders that are so much a part of our landscape are in dire trouble. In recent years populations of curlew and lapwing have collapsed, down 61% and 55% on what they once were, and oystercatchers too are struggling, with a third less of these beautiful birds being recorded around our shores.
Peregrine falcons nesting on top of St Mary’s Church have successfully hatched three chicks. The pair of birds nesting on the top of the Andover Church laid four eggs in late March, and had been incubating them over the past month. The first egg hatched at the start of May, with two more following in the days after. You can keep up with the peregrine family thanks to a live webcam on top of the church, which was funded by Andover residents back in 2019. Peregrine falcons are one of the world’s fastest birds, capable of reaching speeds of over 200mph while diving towards prey. They use this speed to catch smaller birds, and can often be see nesting on tall buildings and cliffs.
When investigators in the UK recorded the calls of migratory birds called thrushes at night, they found that call rates were up to five times higher over the brightest urban areas compared with darker villages.