Turtle Dove - Martin Standley
It's been a while since our last January 1st 2019 effort where we tallied an all time record of 81 species in our new year's listing day. It'll be nice to resurrect this tradition for 2022 and as it happens it coincides with the Michael Clegg memorial Yorkshire Bird Race on the 2nd of Jan (A character synonymous with Tophill and certainly an influence on myself as a young naturalist back in the 80's)
Previously the race had always been 'county wide' and involved a car based dash to score as many birds as possible - which alas we always left to others and merely welcomed any competing teams at the reserve.
This year the challenge non-motorised, and as such we can put on a good show at the reserve as Tophill is always a diverse winter site. As such at 10am on the 1st of Jan we'll be undertaking our first 'reserve walk' to recce the species ready for the 2nd.
On Sunday the 2nd of Jan we'll be undertaking two reserve walks as the bird race proper - one at 10am, and one at 1:30pm starting from the car park. Our volunteers will be guiding us in to any notable species and tallying a running score up - standard admission charge applies but all donations gratefully received on the day for the North Yorkshire Turtle Dove project in partnership with the friends of Dalby;
The North Yorkshire Turtle Dove
Project (NYTDP) is a volunteer-led initiative that works to help address the
dramatic declines in our Turtle Dove population through:
• volunteer-based
survey work/citizen science
• working with
land managers to create/improve suitable habitat and improve land management
practices
• engage local
communities and schools to raise awareness and increase participation in
practical conservation
• Build links and share best practice with national and international partners.
We are very lucky to still have
Turtle Doves in North Yorkshire, our work surveying these birds since 2016 has
produced an estimate of between 50 and 100 pairs, the majority nest within the
North York Moors National Park with smaller numbers in the Howardian Hills
AONB.
Turtle
Doves need a reliable source of water because they feed their small chicks in
the nest on milk created in their crop (known as crop milk). Without water
their breeding success declines.
How Yorkshire Birders Can
Help
In 2022 we have big plans to
continue our work with Turtle Dove friendly farmers within our North Yorkshire
Project area. We would like to provide more water by not only restoring more
ponds but also by creating small drinking pools close to where Turtle Doves are
still nesting.
We need you to form a team, get
sponsored and enter the annual Yorkshire Bird Race on the 2nd January to
help us raise money for these drinking pools/small ponds. It’s very simple the
more money we raise the more landowners and farmers we can work with providing
better habitat for Turtle Doves and other birds in our county.
All the money raised from
this bird race will be spent on these habitat conservation measures.
We'll see how close to that 81 we can get...
