To monitor the success of our landowner advice and their turtle dove friendly actions we are hoping to monitor a series of 1km squares in our Turtle Dove Friendly Zones for the next few years. We hope to have a webhub set up by next year to make this a lot easier to organise but currently all the preselected squares in the Framlingham, Stonham Aspal and Hadleigh zones are available for surveying. There are other survey squares in other areas if none of these are suitable for you. The survey is a two visit survey, with the first survey period running until the 20th of June and the second until 31st of July. Although there are additional species which the instructions ask to be recorded: Grey partridge, Lapwing, Nightingale, Willow tit, Yellow wagtail, Tree sparrow, Bullfinch, Linnet, Reed bunting, Yellowhammer, Corn bunting and Woodlark - If you aren’t confident in identifying these species but can confidently identify turtle dove by song (purring) and sight please do still volunteer. You would just need to let us know you haven’t recorded the other species (so we know that they weren’t recorded rather than they weren’t present). Squares that don’t contain turtle doves are just as important as those which do for monitoring trends.
To apply please follow the link below to start the registration process for an RSPB survey volunteer. The process is pretty straightforward and I am happy to talk to anyone who has questions.
For anyone who wants to see turtle dove this year I am reliably informed they are showing very well at Wrabness at the moment and that there is a pair at RSPB Boyton. If an organised survey is a bit much for you then please do send any turtle dove sightings either into Birdtrack or to me.
Many thanks
Eliza
Eliza Leat
Conservation advisor for Turtle Doves, Suffolk
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