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The Voice of the Turtle

I glanced out of the window as I was sitting down with my dinner and thought "that's and odd looking collared dove". A second look picked out the striped patches on the neck and the colour of the wings and I realised that it was a turtle dove. I then realised that I had heard it calling earlier but it hadn't registered at the time. Its the first time that I have seen or heard a turtle in this area and have never seen one so close.

The robins have a brood, I saw one taking food away. A blackbird was feeding its chick and the young blue tits are now feeding themselves. Starling numbers have dropped slightly, groups are mostly in single figures and haven't seen anything like the 20 plus groups cleaning the feeders out in hours a few days ago. A one litre fat bar has lasted all day and there should be some tomorrow as well.

Other birds in the garden today have been wood pigeon, house sparrow, chaffinch and goldfinch. Out and about there were three kites over fields just north of Burnham Beeches. One came down to land close to the hedge but as always there were cars on my tail and I couldn't stop. They were still around when I returned but at a little distance from the road.

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