Inspirational birds

Richard Baines – North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project Officer

The North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project has benefited from huge support since we started back in 2016; from local farmers to national celebrities, we have been amazed at how many people want to help the project.

This year we entered what will be our last funded year as part of our current National Lottery Heritage Fund Project. Because of this we were determined to continue the conservation effort and to keep creating habitat to help the local Turtle Dove population survive. To help resource planned future work and to generally raise awareness of Turtle Dove conservation we decided to launch an autumn of fund raising.

So – how could artists, celebrities and a couple of cyclists help Turtle Doves?

The major art theme grew out of a donation from international wildlife artist Alan Hunt who lives in North Yorkshire. Alan donated two beautiful pieces of original art to the project.

Alan’s art along with other pieces were displayed at two venues in October (Danby and Dalby) ahead of an auction of the art works. This was a big success attracting a wide range of artists from sculptors such as Jennifer Tetlow to a local poet Tiffany Francis.

Alongside the formal art auction was our unique ‘Doodle a Dove’ celebrity auction. This was run by the local Forestry England’s Funding & Development Manager Petra Young, following on from her Scribble a Squirrel project in Scotland back in the 1990s. Over 30 doodles of Turtle Doves were donated with a crazy range of images by famous people including Bill Oddie, Chris Packham, Lolo Williams, Derek Jacobi, Sophie Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Miriam Margolyes, Lily Cole and many more.

Then up popped fellow Birders Jonny Rankin (RSPB Dove Step fundraising hero) and Nick Moran (BTO) who said “How about we cycle from Thetford to Spurn and raise £3,000 for your project?”. So naturally I said a big yes please! And they did it in September, arriving at Spurn at the start of the iconic Spurn Migration Festival.

The total raised for future Turtle Dove work in North Yorkshire currently stands at £8,000. All of the funds will be spent on conservation one way or another, such as the creation of tailor made wild flower plots, pond restoration or scrub creation.

Our year was rounded off in style with news that our project had won the platinum award for the best conservation project at this year’s UK National Parks Conference. We could not have won this award without the amazing efforts of many people from survey volunteers to farmers with habitat space. We were highly commended on the international links achieved through the project such as Bird International’s Flyways Initiatives.

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