Turtledove in South Dublin/North Wicklow

B0jangles

For the last day or two a turtledove has been foraging alongside the collared doves outside our house. I have no pictures yet, but I am 99.9% certain it is one - I saw it on the ground from only about 20 feet away.

Having looked online it seems pretty unlikely to be a wild one as they have historically only appeared here in spring/autumn and as vagrants on the south coast, with breeding pairs only recorded a handful of times.

So I was thinking it was probably an escapee from someone's aviary, or maybe another example of a species range changing like the little egrets has over the last 15 years.

Has anyone else seen one lately - we're in Bray so I suppose they'd be likely to be seen around north wicklow or south dublin?

(also I'll get pictures as soon as I can - hopefully our local sparrowhawk won't nab it first; unfortunately she's very fond of eating collared doves )

OpenYourEyes

We would still be in the period of 'spring' migration so I'd say it is a possibility for sure! Pictures always good to clinch/confirm it for sure!

B0jangles

Photos!

OpenYourEyes

Fantastic bird to have in your garden Bojangles!! It's worth recording it on the National Biodiversity Data Centre website: http://records.biodiversityireland.ie/record/birds

B0jangles

I was just about to ask who we should tell about it - thanks!

Zoo4m8

Great to see! I have a photo of one here (Greystones) in the yard a couple years ago.. Wish I knew how to post pics using an iPad .. Many years ago we had an out farm in Kilcoole where it was usual to see one or two most summers..

B0jangles

I have just been told that a second turtle dove has been seen feeding along with the other one! I haven't seen them both myself yet, but I'll keep the camera handy and hopefully I can get a few shots of the two of them together.

One just turned up and came a lot closer than before:

B0jangles

Two doves confirmed!



Do they look like a pair? One is definitely a lot smaller than the other but in that light and from that distance I couldn't swear to the smaller one being as much paler as it looks in the photo

gzoladz

Excellent find, the only time I saw one was in Galicia last year. I am going back this year and will definitely be looking for one.

Eyepatch

Amazing!

recedite

Great pics. If they are a pair they would still have time to build a nest I presume?
Keep feeding them, and keep them happy!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

recedite wrote: »

Great pics. If they are a pair they would still have time to build a nest I presume?
Keep feeding them, and keep them happy!

They have 2 clutches beginning in early April through to Mid May. It's a little late for breeding at this stage, if they haven't done so already.

Interestingly, they are not called Turtle Dove because of the turtleshell like markings. Their call is usually referred to as a "purr, purr." But, apparently, some people many years ago thought the song sounded more like "turr, turr," which caused them to refer to the bird as "Turr-tle Dove." It could have been called the purtle dove.

B0jangles

Sadly it seems our visitors have moved on No-one here has seen them since the very wet weather last saturday; I was holding off on posting an update in case they showed up again but at this stage it seems unlikely they'll be back. At least it does seem likely they moved on, rather than they were caught by one of the many local cats since they both disappeared at the same time, so that is something anyway.

We'll keep watching out for them all the same, and it was really lovely and exciting to see them each day they were here

recedite

Probably gone back to somewhere sunnier. Nice feathers, but not very waterproof.
Pathetic pussy pigeons.

B0jangles

It was interesting to watch the interaction between the collared doves and the turtle doves. We have a regular group of between 4 and 16-ish collared doves* who come down to eat several times each day, and a couple of them are very territorial - they spend most of their time on the ground trying to chase off other the collared doves instead of eating anything. When those guys saw the turtle doves, they either ignored them completely or occasionally they'd just start up their attack-mode until they seemed to realise these weren't doves like them and they would immediately back off. Even though the turtle doves were smaller than the collared doves and there were only two of them, the locals just didn't seem to know what to do about them, so it looked like they spent most of the time pretending they weren't there.

*the last couple of times the group got really big, the local hen sparrowhawk went after them until there were only a few left - she's very sneaky and obviously, fast; one time she flew past my head so close I felt the wind from her wings .