Regular visitors to Frampton have been asking about some work we've been doing. A patch of land next to the reedbed that used to grow kale and teasels has been ploughed up. What is going on?
The answer is that we are doing our bit to help what is one of the UK's most threatened birds, the turtle dove. The purring cooing of turtle doves used to be *the* sound of the British summer. But in recent years their numbers have declined dramatically. There has been a 90% decline within the last 20 years, leading to suggestions it could be extinct as a British breeding bird within the decade. There are various reasons for the decline, bit a big one is the changes in farming practice. The field edge plants that the doves used to feed on have largely disappeared in favour of larger and more intensively managed fields.
So what we are doing is putting in a turtle dove strip. An area purposely set aside to grow the sorts of plants that the doves need. Especially fumitory, a purple-flowered plant whose seeds the doves especially like to eat. With this extra food we hope that the resident Frampton doves will continue to do well. Ours increased in number last year, bucking the national trend so we'd very much like this to continue! We are also very pleased to report that Jeff our friendly local farmer is putting in his own turtle dove strip too.
Fumitory (picture by H Zell)
The birds themselves are our smallest member of the pigeon family and the only one which undergoes long distance migrations. Each year they fly down to central africa to escape the winter and arrive back in spring. They get their name from the tortoiseshell patterning on their wings. The decline of this species is such that the RSPB has been asking members of the public to report any they see, to build up a bigger picture of their numbers and distribution. So next summer, keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Turtle dove by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.