Nest building Collared Doves

It may have been a bit chilly today and is forecast to be colder tomorrow but it has been another relatively mild winter so far.  Many birds are starting to show territorial activity now that the days are getting longer and species like Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Starling and Great Tit have been singing, on and off, for a week or two now. 

Whilst watching the birds in the garden this morning I noticed a Collared Dove flying into some ivy about 6 metres up a tree and I suspected it had joined another that was already there. The ivy clad tree is in the park just across the road from the front garden and I had seen a Collared Dove visit the same location a few days ago, so I began to think it was a pair that could be nest building or at least prospecting.

I watched for a while and saw that one bird kept flying down to the ground and then going back up to the same location in the tree, and although it was a bit too far away for me to be sure I thought it had carried some nest material on at least one occasion. I decided to check it out so I grabbed my camera and went for a closer look.

On entering the park I could see what I presumed to be the male Collared Dove searching for fine twigs along the side of the path. There were loads of fine birch and alder twigs on the ground for it to choose from but it was fussier than I expected. It would pick up a twig and then discard it and then go on to another. This process was repeated several times before it found one it deemed to be suitable which it then took up to its partner at the nest site in the ivy.

The other Collared Dove, presumably the female, stayed at the nest site and arranged the twigs that were brought by its partner. Given that a Collared Dove nest is usually a fairly flimsy platform of twigs there was a lot of careful placement, turning around and treading of the twigs into place. Although the nest is well concealed on a branch in the ivy it appeared to be quite substantial by Collared Dove standards and probably not far off completion.

Collared Doves have been recorded nesting throughout the year where food is abundant, although breeding activity is generally much reduced in winter. Day length probably has a part to play in reducing winter breeding activity in the UK rather than a shortage of food as there is likely to be a greater and more reliable supply of food from garden feeding through the winter than at other times of year.

While it may not be unheard of to find a pair of Collared Doves nest building in late January it is still relatively uncommon in this area and a welcome sign of spring.

Long distance Dove.

Regular readers of this blog may just remember a post (link here) in which I detailed my failure to catch a French ringed Blackcap in a friends garden. While I didn't catch the Blackcap that day, way back on 30/12/14, I did manage to catch a Wren, 3 Dunnocks, 4 Blackbirds, 4 Blue Tits, 2 Coal Tits and a Collared Dove. The chances of getting a recovery from that small catch is extremely low and the chances of getting a long distance recovery is even lower so you can imagine my surprise when I received a recovery report for the Collared Dove and it had been found 308 km away in Scotland.

ES10154    Collared Dove
Ringed        30/12/2014     Hindley Green, near Hindley, Greater Manchester
Found         07/06/2016     Buchlyvie, Stirling, Scotland.   308 km NNW, duration 525 days.
It was reported as being found unwell and that it died overnight.



This is the first recovery I have ever had for a Collared Dove and it prompted me to do a bit of reading up on the species. The section on Collared Dove in the BTO Migration Atlas starts with the usual summary of its colonisation of the UK - first recorded in 1952, first recorded breeding in 1955, firmly established by 1963 and that current abundance broadly mirrors that of the human population. However it goes on to say that dispersal distances have reduced since the mid-1970s and that there is little recent evidence for the long distance dispersal that assisted their spread across Europe and subsequent colonisation of Britain & Ireland.

The Migration Atlas was published in 2002 so I also trawled through the Online Ringing Reports on the BTO website to look at more recent recoveries. The Online Ringing Report currently shows data for the last 9 years (2007 - 2015) and, interestingly, there were only 5 movements of over 100km reported within Britain & Ireland during that period. In addition there were no recoveries abroad of birds ringed in Britain & Ireland and only one foreign ringed Collared Dove was found here, a bird ringed in western France that travelled 843 km north to South Yorkshire. This strongly suggests that the reduction in long distance dispersal since the mid 1970s has been maintained.

The number of Collared Doves ringed each year has been broadly similar for many years with the average for the last 9 years being 771. This is less than I had expected given how common they are but then they are very adept at avoiding and getting out of mist-nets which is the most commonly used trapping method employed by ringers. Even looking all the way back to 1966 the annual totals are generally in the mid to high hundreds and only exceed the 1,000 mark occasionally, with the highest total being 1,817 in 1971, so the continued low occurrence of long distance movements over the last 9 years isn't a result of fewer Collared Doves being ringed each year.

So the recent recovery of ES10154 in Scotland is more unusual than I initially realised as reports of long distance movements are less than annual and seem likely to remain that way. It's hardly surprising that Collared Doves became more sedentary following the colonisation of our islands as those birds that continued to disperse over long distances to the west or northwest would increasingly find themselves over the sea and perish. It seems, therefore, that long distance dispersal has largely been bred out of British and Irish Collared Doves and that long distance movements will remain the exception and serve as an occasional reminder of a previously more commonly held trait that helped the species spread from their ancestral haunts in Turkey and the Middle East.

Collared Dove

References:

BTO, Wernham C., et al. ‘’The Migration Atlas: Movements of the Birds of Britain and Ireland.’’ London: T & AD Poyser Ltd (A & C Black) (2002).

Robinson, R.A., Leech, D.I. & Clark, J.A.(2015) The Online Demography Report: Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain & Ireland in 2015 BTO, Thetford (link here)

Sparrowhawk 1 - Collared Dove 0 = me late for work.

The post title refers to the result of an encounter between a juvenile female Sparrowhawk and a Collared Dove in the garden this morning. I was just about to set off for work when I noticed the action so I grabbed the camera and managed to get a few shots through the window. The light was terrible as it was raining and really dull, nearer half light, so I had to use the lens wide open and really up the ISO. Not good when you only shoot in jpeg like me.

The game was well and truly over for the Collared Dove before I took the first shot as the Sparrowhawk had already eaten its head by then. I watched it feed for about 15 minutes before it flew up onto the hedge with the remains and then it carried them off into the trees across the road. The rather grainy photos that follow tell some of the story for themselves. A cracking bird doing what nature intended.

Just mooching

I got up this morning to find the Fieldfare was still visiting the garden. It has been coming to feed on apples every day even though the last of the snow melted at the beginning of the week. It has been semi resident for almost two weeks now and has been getting through at least two apples each day. I thought it would have moved on by now and it will be interesting to see how long it stays for.

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

A bit of wing and leg stretching

After taking an excessive number of photos of the Fieldfare I went for a mooch on Orrell Water Park. It was very sunny but there was a significant wind chill making it feel quite cold. I had literally just entered the park when I noticed a Collared Dove collecting nesting material. It was collecting fine birch twigs from the same area but its efforts were interrupted by dog walkers. This is the first nest building I have recorded this year.

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

I wandered up to the reserve area where a Kingfisher showed quite well for a while. Not well enough to get photos of the quality I would have liked but much better than I have managed previously. The sunlight was quite harsh and twigs often partially obscured the view or cast a shadow on the bird. The sun being harsh is my excuse for getting the exposure wrong and it doesn't help that I don't shoot in RAW.

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

A helicopter disturbed proceedings on one occasion but at least it was rather colourful whirlybird.

Salvaged weekend; just

I was up before first light on Saturday only to find it raining hard and scuppering my plans to go out. When it did finally stop I walked to Longshaw and put up the usual dog leg. I couldn't go anywhere else as the car is out of action having blown its turbo. It soon became obvious that no new warblers had arrived and Whitethroats, in particular, were conspicuous by their absence. There was no sign of any passage either apart from the odd Meadow Pipit. Dead just about sums it up and the only bird caught was a retrap Willow Warbler. I should have gone back to bed rather than go out.

Almost the same script on Sunday, up before first light to find it raining again. This cold showery weather is starting to get boring and there is no let up in sight. Went back to bed this time and had another few hours sleep. When I dragged myself out of bed again it was still raining but it soon stopped and the breeze dropped right off. This tempted me to try a net in the garden. All the garden regulars seem to recognise the net poles and either stay clear or work their way around the net but this new adult male Blackbird was caught. This is the 16th Blackbird caught in the garden this year so hopefully a few of the earlier ones were winter visitors that are now back in Scandinavia.


Blackbird (Turdus merula)

This was followed by a Collared Dove but then a breeze picked up and the sun came out making any further captures unlikely. Unfortunately my garden just doesn't have enough cover or shelter for netting in anything other than flat calm and overcast conditions.



Collared Dove (Sterptopelia decaocto)

The sun produced just enough warmth to fool a Speckled Wood into flying. It flew sluggishly into the garden where it soon settled. It allowed me to coax it on to my finger for a photograph before I put back in the hedge to wait for conditions to improve. I think it will have a long wait looking at the forecast.

Speckled Wood (Parage aegeria)



Speckled Wood (Parage aegeria)

I was still keen to try and get a few more birds and the dog needed a walk so off we went with a couple of poles and my gear to an area of willow scrub close to home. This was my first visit to this site this spring, the willows providing enough shelter and shade to make netting in the afternoon worth a try. A 20ft net and and brief burst of song played from an mp3 player soon resulted in a Blackcap being caught and then a change of song produced a Chiffchaff. I then moved the net to a boggy part of the scrub where it was nice to see plenty of Dog Violets coming into flower. Here another Chiffchaff was soon tempted into the net.


Dog Violet (Viola riviniana)



Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus trillobita)

This was repeated around the site and resulted in further two Blackcaps three Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler. The final tally for the day being: Blackbird 1
Collared Dove 1
Willow Warbler 1
Blackcap 3
Chiffchaff 5
Total 11

The dog loves coming with me and is really patient and will sit for ages. He didn't like part of this site and seems to have an allergy to nettles.


Bryn

Hopefully the weather will improve eventually and let a few more birds in otherwise it is going to be a slow spring.