The appearance of a meena Rufous Turtle Dove in Easington came as a shock to everyone during the sunny early evening of the 2nd July.
18 July 2021
It was the second record for Spurn after a bird in 1975, and during its stay, could be enjoyed thanks to the kind hospitality of three birding homes who opened their doors to visitors.
The particularly verdant garden of Paul & Georgia French became a regular hideout for this Asian pigeon and Georgia did a sterling job allowing visitors into her garden and home in between work hours. A donation bucket there raised over £435 for the Observatory, which we have decided to appropriately plough into making cover crop strips aimed at Turtle Doves for the spring / summer 2022 season. This may be in North Field or in the Cliff Farm fields, the acquisition of which is underhand as I type. In recent years we have seen Turtle Doves lingering in the area, and with the various thick cover available for nesting in the recording area, we felt that the availability of food was possibly a limiting factor for why this scarily declining species is no longer breeding in the Spurn area.
We will make sure to keep our Friends of Spurn updated on our progress and we'd like to thank all those who donated generously and for Paul and Georgia French for being such great hosts.
