A massacre of nearly 1500 Turtle Doves in one day by foreign tourist hunters in the Marrakech region sparked great outrage in Morocco. The total exceeded by three times the hunting quota set by the law according to an official inquiry. A hunting party organized in the region of Marrakech has turned into a real […]
Tag: Turtle Dove
‘We are silencing the natural world’: can the turtle dove be saved?
Under the torrential rain of a fickle British summer, 25 soggy pilgrims gather in front of the Plough, an ancient oak-beamed pub in the West Sussex village of Rusper. Above the drone of planes bringing travellers into Gatwick, the walkers – variously devotees of trekking, folk music or wildlife – raise their voices to sing […]
Serin at Littlestone and a first for London
Jim and I travelled down to Littlestone in Kent this morning and before 7am we had found our first target as we pulled up outside the golf course to park and we could hear the European Serin singing it’s heart out. The singing made it quite easy to pick out the bird as it moved […]
Upcher’s Warblers
This morning I went out birding with Piki, Micha and Stefan in E Lakhish hills. It was my first visit to this wonderful part of the country since my return from the UK. As the days are already very hot now, we started super early when it was actually quite chilly (7⁰C!). As we stepped […]
Dusky Turtle Dove
Whilst birding the southwest of the Kingdom at various times from spring through summer I came across good numbers of Dusky Turtle Dove. Numbers have been much higher this year than any previous years I have been to the southwest. The species is a breeding resident in the Asir notably the Abha and Jebel Soudah […]
First Autumn European Turtle Dove – Jubail area
The European Turtle Dove is a long-distance migrant breeder across much of central and southern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, wintering mainly in the Sahel zone of Africa. The species is in serious decline because of loss of suitable habitat in both the breeding and non-breeding range, unsustainable levels of hunting […]
Birding the Abha Area
Whilst birding the Abha area recently we went to Azeeza to look for Blandford’s Short-toed Larks as birds had been seen here by us in previous years. The area has had some building and construction work done in the last couple of years and despite quite extensive searching we failed to find any birds. Very […]
Oare
Yesterday saw a quick trip down to Oare Marsh in Kent. Arriving early we enjoyed a quartering Barn Owl and a Little Owl with a pair of Marsh Harrier along with the usual waders, Egrets and ducks. We heard a Turtle Dove calling in the distance and eventually picked it up sitting in the trees […]