Our good friends EBwS Bird News have four days of free guided birdwatching walks at some great sites across Essex starting today! All welcome. Its a great way for beginners to get their teeth in to this fantastic hobby.

Lovely Spring morning for a bit of survey training with #volunteers Tracy, Kevin and David. Gearing up for some farm surveys.

Friday sightings RSPB Titchwell Marsh our first Turtle Dove and Cuckoo of the year. 2 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear, 2 Garden Warbler, Black Redstart, Yellow Wagtail, Grasshopper Warbler, Spoonbill plus 100+ Mediterranean Gulls and c1100 Sandwich Terns this evening. Cuckoo by Les Bunyan

They're back!

A, if not, the key principle of farm wildlife actions is good management of your existing habitat features....like #hedgerows Turtle Doves love them big, thick and thorny. A Whitethroat prefers them young. Variety is the spice of hedgerow life.

Sharing the joy/elation/relief with all our followers as the first Turtle Dove sightings begin to trickle in. Here's one 'purring' having just returned to a regular site in #Essex

Operation Turtle Dove The Wildlife Trusts RSPB A garden full this morning,Turtle Doves quite happy to feed with them.

A historical photo from Stephen Clark to celebrate today's Turtle Dove sightings at #RSPBFrampton, after none at all in 2024. Here too today's sightings map and list.

What a beautiful morning to be out surveying. Cuckoo in the distance, Skylark over the field, Robin in the hedge. #BirdSong

Sound up!

Thanks for meeting Eliza and Shirley Richard, it's a great article. We hope your birds arrive back soon.

A good way to start the working week is to be greeted by a Black Redstart when you arrive for a farm visit. A bonus for Mark, our adviser in Essex today. Listen for a series of chortling notes.

Early successional scrub with a Reed Bunting merrily singing away. Easy to forget that these birds are farmland birds of dry habitats and in the 70s were found in coppice woodlands. This is future Turtle Dove nesting habitat.

Our author friend, Richard Negus, coming up trumps with a Turtle Dove singing outside his house this morning. Helps to be an early bird to hear one!

The moment has arrived. It won't win "Best Photo", but we finally have a trail cam image of all five UK pigeons and doves. Taken this week in Essex. Plus a bonus House Sparrow in the middle.

Are you local to #Cambridgeshire? Are you a #farmer or a landowner / land manager? Have you seen or heard #TurtleDoves on your land or in your parish? Come and join the OTD Cambridgeshire team RSPB Hope Farm on Saturday 14th June! 👀Register here: events.rspb.org.uk/events/110048

Operation Turtle Dove The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants RSPB Todays visit from the Turtle Dove

This week! There are still spaces left on our #TurtleDove Conservation Morning RSPB Hope Farm 👀 RSPB England Pensthorpe Fair to Nature Natural England

Displaying male turtle dove Graham Denny John Rice John Walshe BTO Suffolk Operation Turtle Dove

We will be at the Open Farm Garden Safari in Shadoxhurst on Sunday the 22nd! Find our stand and have a chat about all things Turtle Dove. Link to register here: kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/events/open-fa…. See you there :)