Turtle Dove: This absurdly showy first-winter bird has been feeding on the foreshore track for a number of days now. The bird was not shy at all, leaping out of the way of dog walkers and trotting around cyclists and pedestrians that where using the grassy track along the foreshore.
The village of Hest Bank is a stunning areas set between Morecambe and Carnforth, with its grassy foreshore and a sandy beach it has views onto the saltmarshes and mudflats of Morecambe Bay, which is notorious for its sinking sands, mud-filled gullies and fast-moving tides.
I was stunned to how tame this bird actually was, you could literally walk right up to it and pet it!
It seems very vulnerable with all the dog walks about. I didn't see it fly so perhaps it injured, although it appears t be in good health with pristine feathers, walking and feeding well.
Turtle dove are the fastest declining UK bird and our only migratory pigeons species, these two things are unfortunately linked as its where they over winter in areas of Europe and further the issues occur.
Habitat loss here is defiantly a factor in their decline however birds on migration have long been subject to strong hunting pressure as they pass through the Mediterranean countries. Today only Malta has a legal spring shooting season for these doves but they are still shot illegally elsewhere.
Lets hope this usually brave bird doesn't get attacked by a dog or picked off by a predator and soon continues its migration.
