Temporal changes in the breeding and feeding ecology of Turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur) in the UK: an overview.

Abstract

Annual surveys of breeding Turtle Doves Streptopelia Turtur in the UK suggest a 70%, decline in abundance between 1970 and 1998 (Baillie et aI., 200I) and a 25% contraction in range between the periods 1968-1972 and 1988-1991 (Gibbons et al., 1993). These declines have been so severe that the majority of the UK population is now restricted to the most southern and eastern counties of England. Extrapolation from the 1988-91 census and subsequent decline rates indicate that the UK population probably numbers only about 30,000 pairs in 200I. The decline is of such concern that the U K government has placed the turtle dove on the list of priority species considered by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). One of the recommendations of the UK Species Action Plan for the turtle dove is to undertake an autecological research project to identify the cause of the recent decline, to inform a recovery plan (Anon., 1998).
The pattern of range contraction and decline in abundance of UK Turtle Doves has been repeated elsewhere in Europe. The observed declines across European countries have made turtle doves a Category 3 species of European conservation concern (SPECs), which is a 'species whose global populations are not concentrated in Europe, but have an Unfavourable Conservation Status in Europe' (Heath et al., 2000).
It has been suggested that there are potentially three stages where factors could have affected turtle doves and caused the observed decline in abundance and range contraction: on the wintering grounds, on migration or during the breeding season (Marchant et al., 1990). This paper concentrates on the factors potentially affecting the species during the breeding season in Britain.
Until recently the only major ecological study was completed in the 1960s (Murton et al., 1964; Murton 1968). Little is therefore known about turtle dove ecology in Britain in a modern agricultural environment, which has changed considerably since the 1960s (Grigg 1989). The factors causing its recent decline, and the stages of its life history at which such factors operate, were unknown before the present study.
This paper presents an overview of some of the results of a three-year field-based project, whose aim was to investigate the role of agricultural intensification in the decline of the turtle dove (Browne and Aebischer, 2001), and compares them with results collected during a study carried out in the early 1960s.