MANCUNIAN modern-day blues band Doves recently announced big news about their new album and tour.
To celebrate, Royton-based birder and Doves fan James Walsh, also known as The Mancunian Birder, takes a look at the doves of the Oldham borough.
“We probably won’t be seeing two Turtle Doves in Oldham this Christmas,” he says. “They are, unfortunately, now exceptionally rare in Greater Manchester due to hunting abroad, especially in the Mediterranean region, and habitat loss.
“It is a declining summer visitor to the British Isles. The most recent record in the Oldham borough was in the Castleshaw Valle on September 24, 2013.
“But a very similar species once flew into Royton to give local birders a rare and exotic treat from the Middle East.
“In July 1991, a Laughing Dove, also known as the Palm Dove, arrived in gardens on Chetwyn Avenue and, once word got out, there were crazy scenes as birdwatchers from around the country invaded the quiet backstreet near Royton Cricket Club to catch a glimpse of this very rare bird in the British Isles.
“This bird was probably the same Laughing Dove that was seen at Portland Bill, Dorset, on May 5, 1991, before migrating north to Sunderland (Tyne and Wear) on June 8, 1991.
“The dates suggest this might be a genuinely wild bird on ‘spring migration overshoot that was attempting to re-orientate, moving south to Royton in July 1991, in an attempt to find its way back home to the Middle East.
“It represents the third record of Laughing Dove for Britain and Ireland. The first record was in Norfolk and the second was a bird that made landfall on Skomer Island, off the west coast of Wales, in June 1988, and presumably the same bird followed the coastline north for an 18-month holiday in the Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool. More recently, a Laughing Dove was present in Sandon, Hertfordshire, in July 2017.”
Mirroring its close relative the Collared Dove – now a very widespread bird of the Oldham borough – the Laughing Dove might be utilising the same techniques to expand its range.
It is thought the Collared Dove originally arrived onboard grain ships to Britain, and there is evidence the Laughing Dove might be doing similar on a much smaller scale.
A flock of four were present in Childer Thornton, Cheshire, in the 1990s, just up the road from Ellesmere Port.