The oriental turtle dove that turned up in a garden in Chipping Norton back in February is still being seen. This is a very rare bird in the UK and February seems a pretty odd time for one to turn up.
But hundreds of twitchers have paid £5 to get the chance to see the bird and got a thrill out of it. The home owners, the Akers family, have been brilliantly tolerant and welcoming to all those birders who have queued up to see this rare bird from their kitchen window. It's all a bit odd in a way but it's all a bit inspiring in other ways.
And bird conservation on Malta and in the UK is benefitting from this lost bird and the enthusiasm of all those twitchers.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
So much credit must go to the Akers family what a great idea to raise money for trying to stop the rotten practices in Malta. As a birdwatcher not a twitcher, so I am keen to see the waxwings when they come my way but not so interested in seeing the Dove as it is essentially a lost bird, totally out of its context and environment and probably won't survive very long.
While there are many, many well meaning twitchers there are also a lot who are not very considerate either to the bird they are twitching or to the local enviroment and the local people on whose land they maybe visiting. Also, in my experience, surprisingly few twitchers are members of the RSPB or support any other wildlife conservation organisation. Twitching, to many, is all about getting a tick in the box and beating the competition, almost exactly opposite to conscientious bird watching. So I think the RSPB is absolutely right not to get involved with twitching. However that's not to say when the circumstances are right and offer themselves to a sympathetic family such as the Akers family, the chance should not be taken to help birds and wildlife in the way they are doing. As far as ecotourism is concerned, of course the RSPB are already heavily involved with this, with all their ecotourism centers, namely their Reserves.
redkite