Turtle Dove

So far this Spring, I am averaging eight hours and 10+ miles birding per day. Putting this into context, you boys spend about this amount of time working, looking after children/ grandchildren and/or placating other halves. However, despite these hours, I am finding - or not finding - scarce birds about as tricky as advanced calculus at the moment - time plus effort does not equal rares.

Firecrest, Tree Pipit, Ring Ouzel, Arctic Tern and today Turtle Dove are really very nice birds, but they are not exactly SFYL game-changers. So far, Steve's Bar-tailed Godwit and the Green-winged Teal that Richard will undoubtedly find at Meadow Lane or Radwell this week are the only birds that I think could fall into that category.

What someone needs is a Hoopoe, Serin, White-winged Black, Roseate or Little Tern, Montagu's Harrier, Savi's Warbler, Bluethroat or something of that or greater magnitude.

Being 'number one' means bugger all and is not synonymous with 'best' - just ask David Moyes, Sebastian Vettel or Enrique Iglesias or the myriad other shite that inhabits the number one spot in the record charts.

Atb,

DOM

Prrr Prrr

Driving into the scrapyard corner pull off at Stewartby in the vague hope of finding a Turtle Dove, it was a real surprise to see two doves and a Wood Pigeon fly up from the gravelly road side and disappear over the hedge towards the lake side path. My immediate thought that they were Turtle Doves was doubted when I realised I was wearing my shades for driving on the sun and knowing there was a pair of Collared Doves on the corner the previous week. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, it was time for a walk and five minutes later they were on the list, one even coming down into the scrub 10m in front of me above the ditch. I must admit that I was not expecting to get TD on my SFYL for 2013.

Turtle

Running out of easy ones now so things will grind to a halt any day.  But nice to see my first Turtle Dove flying from Broom village to Southill.