From the Archives: Oriental Turtle Dove in Chipping Norton 14th February 2011

Belatedly news came out about an Oriental Turtle Dove of the race S.orientalis orientalis being seen in a back garden of a house on Albion Road in the town of Chipping Norton, between 15th-18th December 2010. The homeowner who was not a birder had taken some photos of the bird and sent them to the Banbury Ornithological Society asking what it was and they had not exactly covered themselves in glory by stating it was a feral pigeon!

Not content with this reply the homeowner then sent the pictures to Ian Lewington, the County Bird Recorder for Oxfordshire who promptly identified it as an Oriental Turtle Dove of the race S.o.orientalis.This is the third occurrence of this race in Britain and the ninth record for any race of Oriental Turtle Dove seen in Britain, so it was very rare.

News only came out about all of this at the end of January 2011 and everyone shrugged and imagined what might have been, but even so some extra keen local birders still wandered the streets of Chipping Norton in the forlorn hope of finding it, but to no avail. Then Steve Akers, a birder who lives in The Leys in Chipping Norton which is not far from Albion Road, reported on 13th February that a strange dove had been coming to his feeders for four days. He contacted the RSPB who in turn put him in touch with Ian Lewington who immediately identified the strange bird as the missing Oriental Turtle Dove.

I was at work on 14th February when I received a call from Badger telling me to drop whatever I was doing and get to Chipping Norton as soon as possible, as Steve was allowing local Oxfordshire birders into his kitchen to view the dove, currently feeding in his back garden. I did not need to be asked a second time and making excuses to my staff, left work and drove home to Kingham which is very near Chipping Norton, calling my wife on the way and asking her to get my camera and bins ready. Everything was waiting for me when I got home and ten minutes later I was at Steve's door, shown through the lounge and into the kitchen currently occupied by half a dozen fellow local birders.  

The dove was perched in an apple tree in the garden, preening and although somewhat distant I nonetheless fired off some record shots on the camera. 

After fifteen minutes it flew much closer, landing on a bird table and then flew down onto the grass not ten feet from the kitchen window. This was absolutely brilliant and with point blank views of this mega rarity I clicked away some more with the camera while it fed, wandered about on the grass and occasionally perched on a fence by the window. I watched it for around ninety miniutes and then felt I really should go back to work

Whilst at Steve's house we had discussed with him about putting the news out to the national pagers and explained to Steve that such a rare bird could attract up to a thousand birders on the following day, but it was entirely up to him whether he wished to keep this quiet or publicise the event. Steve had at this time not yet told his wife Sharon about the presence of the dove and how rare it was but she appeared unphased on finding half a dozen birders in her brand new kitchen extension when she came home at lunchtime. Eventually Steve and Sharon decided that it would be acceptable for the news to go out provided we marshalled the crowds the next day and organised it so everything went smoothly. Ian and myself agreed to man the door and allow ten people in at a time to see the bird, giving them ten minutes viewing before they would have to leave and the next ten were allowed in. Other Oxonbirders agreed they would assist in 'crowd control' inside the house to keep the new kitchen safe from harm.  

Steve decided to charge £5.00 per person for entry, the money going to Birdlife International's Stop the Slaughter in Malta campaign. The next day the weather brought wind and rain. I arrived at the house at 7.30am on a grey, miserable morning and was invited in by Steve and not long afterwards the dove arrived in the garden and I watched it feeding on the lawn. There was already a considerable queue of birders forming outside the house and I ushered in the first ten birders asking them to remove all footwear as it was so wet. After ten minutes the first group came out and we let another ten in who also saw the dove well. These first twenty birders having seen the dove left, content. It was all going to plan when the worst of all things happened, the dove unexpectedly flew off. So having ushered out the second group we allowed another ten birders inside to wait for it to return. However it never did and the queue of birders consequently grew and grew until it reached around three hundred. Steve meanwhile was being interviewed live in his kitchen by BBC Radio Oxford while a freelance press reporter had to be ushered out of next door's garden and given some strong words of advice about how to behave and not antagonise the patiently waiting birders. Steve gave him an exclusive interview to make him go away while another press photographer took photos of the ever growing line of birders, by now stretching halfway up the The Leys.

The dove never returned that day and the many birders departed disappointed. I left about lunchtime and was told that a couple of mobile food vans had arrived later and did a roaring trade from waiting birders.The next day, thankfully the dove came back and although now much more erratic as to which garden it favoured, eventually most, if not all birders got acceptable views of it over the ensuing days, either from Steve's garden, other nearby gardens or even outside in the road.

The residents of The Leys were absolutely fabulous in their attitude to this invasion of their privacy and indeed many welcomed birders into their homes to try and see the dove from their back garden. One kind man who lived opposite to Steve came out taking orders for free tea and coffee from the queueing birders.

The whole event captured the attention of both the local and national media at a 'slow time' of the year and articles, sometimes accompanied by a picture, appeared in all the major newspapers on the 16th February. TV stations also featured the event and there was a piece on BBC's Radio Four Today programme. Steve was now much in demand and had to give live interviews from his kitchen to both the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Currently on 21st February it is still present with varying numbers of birders chasing around The Leys and other nearby roads looking for it. With some patience, luck and possibly assistance from the residents, all visiting birders should manage a view of it after a short wait.

The dove was a first winter/second calendar year bird and had at sometime previously lost half of its tail and was now regrowing the feathers. Racially the identification of the bird was decided on the grey not white tips to the tail feathers and the greyish under tail coverts and ventral area. The uniform greyish pink underparts from breast to belly were also an indication of S. o. orientalis.

The dove was last seen on May 9th, appropriately in Steve's garden.

During its long stay over £4000 was raised for Birdlife International and a Meningitis charity.