The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Baumber Park, Sunday morning 10th May

As I came down the farm drive this morning I was greeted to the sight of a Turtle Dove which flew up into a flowering cherry in the garden and started purring. Could this be last years pair returning? I do hope so. Also at the same time 2 swifts were screaming around the house. My first sighting of both species this spring.

Saturday 23rd May, 12 noon

Please to confirm that I do indeed have a pair of Turlle Doves on territory on the farm. Pair viewed close up today on drive fence. They are appearing to be elusive but let's hope for a productive breeding. I don't read of many other inland pairs on the forum though?

A Turtle Dove has been purring around the nursery at Dunsby for over a week now, but yet to confirm there is a pair. 2 Spotted Flycatcher territories also in Dunsby village.

Hugh Dorrington

Monday 31st August

As it is the last official day of summer it is an appropriate date to review the sightings of Turtle Doves at Baumber Park. There have been a minimum of 14 different records of doves, the earliest being 10th May until the last on 16th August, both dates being marked by hearing a singing male in the same location. I saw the pair together on two occasions and took a record shot of them sat on a picket fence. Despite these sightings and that a territory was held all summer I cannot confirm breeding as no nest or juveniles were seen, unlike last year when a newly fledged juvenile was seen. I think it likely that any nest this year was away from the garden although most of the records of the purring male was in the same tree as last year. I can only hope they have been successful and return safely in 2016. As reported earlier in the summer they were very elusive and sometimes there were three weeks between sightings!

Finally, the small Swift colony at the farmhouse had an arrival date of 10th May and departure date of 5th August. The maximum screaming party of 10 birds recorded in July was below average, usually around 14 birds, which indicates to me there were fewer breeding pairs this season.

The pattern of Turtle Dove sightings at Dunsby this year has been similar to Baumber. Sporadic purring from the middle of May onwards but with gaps of 3 weeks or more between records, and I never saw a pair together. Previous years Turtle Doves seemed to purr continually through the Summer. I had given up hope of successful breeding but 2 different pairs of juveniles this last month shows that they have been quietly getting on with it. Hopefully they have been doing the same at Baumber this year.

Dunsby is a small village but has 300 dairy cows so lots of muck and lots of insects! 2 pairs of Spotted Flycatchers fledged at least 11 young. The evening skies are still full of hirundines - about 50 pairs of House Martins and 20 pairs of Swallows. There is a very small colony of Swifts, maximum seen screaming this year is 5, previous years 7.

Hugh Dorrington