As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday 15 December 2017

Maldon turtle dove conservation zone set up


2 December 2017

A new conservation zone has been created to protect the turtle dove, one of Britain's fastest-declining birds.

The zone is being set up in Maldon, Essex, to help the species increase.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in the past 20 years, the UK had lost more than 94% of its breeding turtle doves.

In the new zone, farmers, businesses and conservation organisations will work together to create the breeding and feeding habitats the birds need.

More than half the UK's remaining turtle doves breed in East Anglia, with "hotspots" in parts of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

Loss of food from the countryside was behind the species' decline, the RSPB said.

Turtle doves eat the fallen seeds of arable plants such as fumitory and knotgrass that are usually thought of as weeds.

These foods had become more scarce with the increased use of herbicides and the intensification of farming, the charity said.

As migrating birds, turtle doves also face threats and pressures outside the UK as they cross the Sahara Desert to survive the winter in Africa.



No comments:

Post a Comment