Garboldisham – Friday 12th June 2015
Turtle Dove
It was a big day, yesterday, for our Daughter-In-Law, Dawn; she along with Drew and some of her family were going to Duxford for her to fly in a Tiger Moth, which her late father, Stan had flown many years ago. I was called upon to dog sit our Granddog, Willow, a job which I always enjoy and for once something that makes me feel useful in my retirement. It’s a job I’ve done a few times before and which I thoroughly enjoy because it gets me out of the house and means that I can just watch all the wildlife in Dawn’s carefully managed garden. I say carefully managed because everything in it is designed to encourage wildlife in all it diversity.
The View From Drew & Dawn's Living Room
&
Willow (Below)
Even before they left on a beautiful sunny day with a moderate breeze and promised temperatures of up to 27˚C, we had seen a Parasitic Wasp on the living room window. Parasitic Wasps are just one part of the Wasp family that incredibly have 9,000 different species in the UK. I’m not sure what type it was but it had a yellow abdomen. Parasitic Wasps are completely harmless to humans and inject their prey, normally a caterpillar of some sort, with one or more eggs that eat the prey from the inside out. They are a varied species in the way they live and breed and are considered to be gardeners' friends rather than enemies of picnics.
The family party set off for Duxford and they’d only been gone for about 15 minutes when I noticed a bird at the back of the garden, which I recognised from seeing regularly in own garden in Bressingham for many years. It was a Turtle Dove and in the words of probably the most famous UK TV grumpy man all I could say was “I just don’t believe it!” I fumbled for my camera; should I take just stills or a video? Well anyone who has seen any of my stills will know that they are normally quite rubbish so I opted for a video.
I started the recording and because I was sitting down the roses that were beginning to grow outside the window were right in my eye line and as usual my camera rather wanted to focus on the them and not the Turtle Dove. I was beginning to panic and the dilemma was to stand up which would obviously run the risk of frightening off the Turtle Dove or persist in trying to find a path through the roses to enable me to focus on the Turtle Dove. Eventually after nearly 2 minutes the camera focused and I was able to lock onto the bird. I’m not the steadiest of cameraman at the best of times but I was so excited and eager that I shook more than normal. Thankfully I still managed to get just over a minute of footage of the Turtle Dove.
Why was it so important? Dawn is a very talented wildlife photographer winning a few National Awards for her work and she is passionate about the plight of the Turtle Dove and is a keen campaigner for its future. Dawn & Drew had not had a Turtle Dove in this garden before but had them in their first home in Shelfanger so I knew that she would want to see this.
You can find Dawn’s website here:
It is well worth a look and especially her blog.
The Turtle Dove population has declined by 95% in the UK since 1970 and has also declined by 74% across Europe since 1980 and it is now on the Red List of species and there is a very real risk that this species will become extinct in the very near future. This decline has been caused by modern farming practices and shooting of the birds on their migration routes. Any sighting of these birds nowadays are real treasures.
After all that excitement there was plenty of other things to see in their garden; like the Frogs in their pond, the pair of Bullfinches that regularly visit their feeders, the Red Damselflies and various Butterflies that visit their carefully chosen plants.
There is a full list of what I saw below. After Jan finished work she joined me and we took Willow for her afternoon walk along the Little Ouse at Thelnetham where Jan saw Reed Warbler fledglings and I saw a Water Vole run across the road over the bridge there.
On the way back to Drew & Dawn’s we were blessed twice once near Blo’ Norton where we saw a Marsh Harrier and then on our way home near Breckles by a Barn Owl flying across the road in front of us, which was quite strange as it was pouring with rain at the time and Barn Owls usually avoid flying in the rain.
What we saw:
Water Vole
2 Common
Frog
Small White
Butterfly**
* = Too many to count
Keep your
eyes peeled and good spotting.
It was a big day, yesterday, for our Daughter-In-Law, Dawn; she along with Drew and some of her family were going to Duxford for her to fly in a Tiger Moth, which her late father, Stan had flown many years ago. I was called upon to dog sit our Granddog, Willow, a job which I always enjoy and for once something that makes me feel useful in my retirement. It’s a job I’ve done a few times before and which I thoroughly enjoy because it gets me out of the house and means that I can just watch all the wildlife in Dawn’s carefully managed garden. I say carefully managed because everything in it is designed to encourage wildlife in all it diversity. 
Even before they left on a beautiful sunny day with a moderate breeze and promised temperatures of up to 27˚C, we had seen a Parasitic Wasp on the living room window. Parasitic Wasps are just one part of the Wasp family that incredibly have 9,000 different species in the UK. I’m not sure what type it was but it had a yellow abdomen. Parasitic Wasps are completely harmless to humans and inject their prey, normally a caterpillar of some sort, with one or more eggs that eat the prey from the inside out. They are a varied species in the way they live and breed and are considered to be gardeners' friends rather than enemies of picnics.
The family party set off for Duxford and they’d only been gone for about 15 minutes when I noticed a bird at the back of the garden, which I recognised from seeing regularly in own garden in Bressingham for many years. It was a Turtle Dove and in the words of probably the most famous UK TV grumpy man all I could say was “I just don’t believe it!” I fumbled for my camera; should I take just stills or a video? Well anyone who has seen any of my stills will know that they are normally quite rubbish so I opted for a video.
Why was it so important? Dawn is a very talented wildlife photographer winning a few National Awards for her work and she is passionate about the plight of the Turtle Dove and is a keen campaigner for its future. Dawn & Drew had not had a Turtle Dove in this garden before but had them in their first home in Shelfanger so I knew that she would want to see this.
The Turtle Dove population has declined by 95% in the UK since 1970 and has also declined by 74% across Europe since 1980 and it is now on the Red List of species and there is a very real risk that this species will become extinct in the very near future. This decline has been caused by modern farming practices and shooting of the birds on their migration routes. Any sighting of these birds nowadays are real treasures.
What we saw:
Turtle Dove
Blue Tit
(fledglings and adults)
Great Tits (fledglings
and adults)
Starlings (fledglings
and adults)
Reed
Warblers (fledglings and adults)
Pair of
Bullfinches
Pair of
Goldfinches
Chaffinch
Magpie
Swifts**
Marsh
Harrier
Barn Owl
Wood
Pigeon**
Crow**
Water Vole
2 Common
Frog
Small White
Butterfly**
Red
Damselfly
Peacock
Butterfly
* = Too many to count
** = Several
Keep your
eyes peeled and good spotting.
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