We have tracked some of Marden’s familiar Turtle Doves on their travels this year. Here are just a few interesting snippets from this year’s Turtle Dove studies while we wait to gather all the data for proper analysis.
The first is Georgie, ringed in Marden in 2022 and seen here every year since then, apart from this year. Happily, she was photographed in July in Maxey, north of Peterborough, by local resident Angela Trotter. So, she is now at least five years old.
Georgie
When she was first ringed, we think it likely she was paired with a male, Guy, with whom she may have been paired every year until this year. Although we caught Guy on camera earlier this year (he’s the one on the right in the picture below) we hadn’t seen Georgie until we received the news of her in Peterborough.
Guy (above on the right)
So far, we seem to be having a good breeding year, with many young doves appearing. So, it seems Georgie has chosen to help out the folk at The Turtle Dove Trust by supplementing their captive bred birds they are releasing nearby.
Our second traveller is Adrienne. She was ringed and GPS tagged in Staplehurst last year and we discovered she already had a nest in Bedgebury Forest. An unusual arrangement for a species that is supposed to prefer all its breeding requirements within a few hundred metres. This year she has been seen on camera on four different sites. In this picture she is landing at a Marden farm to feed on the supplementary seed but note the time: she had already been caught on camera at six o’clock that morning feeding in Bedgebury – and was back there again by early evening!
Adrienne
