Countryside Management Association News

The latest Breeding Birds Survey, published recently, shows that sightings of turtle doves have declined by 61 per cent since the 1990s.

The British Trust for Ornithology, says that the bird has disappeared from the South-West and the North of England and has become increasingly hard to find in its arable stronghold of East Anglia.

The decline is mainly due to changing agricultural practices, which have led to the scarcity of once-common weeds, such as fumitory, on which the doves depend for food during the breeding season. Also the
Common Agricultural Policy has led to widespread disappearance of their nesting habitat - tall overgrown hedges and areas of scrub on farmland.

The doves are also hunted as they migrate from Africa and have suffered from habitat changes as the Sahara spreads southwards into their winter territory