Saturday, September 25, 2010

Turtle Dove lll (and lV)

I went round to West Cross today about 10 a.m. to see if the Turtle Dove was still there. At first, there was no sign of it, so I walked off, and came back again. And there it was, just as tame as before, and allowing me to take a few more pictures:





It was so approachable that I was able to put three extension tubes on my 500mm lens, to enable it to focus closer, and focus in on the bird's amazing eye:


and then to remove my big lens and take a shot with my 17-40mm wideangle:


After a while, some dodgy-looking geezers from the Glamorgan Bird Club arrived to see and photograph the bird. Amazingly, they had just seen another Turtle Dove about a mile further along the bay at Blackpill, this time a juvenile, so we walked back down there and I was able to take a few snaps of it as it fed amonst the sand-dune vegetation:


After never having seen a Turtle Dove before, seeing two in one day was a bit special!

7 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos. After hearing about Turtle Doves in the 12 Days of Christmas song for so many years, it's wonderful to actually see them.

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  2. Such gorgeous shots of this dove! The close-up of the eye is truly amazing!

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  3. I had to come back to gaze at them again! It is first time for me too to see a turtle dove, such a lovely bird and an amazing capture!

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  4. Jeremy - can't find an email link on this blog, so asking here. Any chance you could let me add one of your Turtle shots to teh Gower Wildlife blog. I have added a link to my links list and I'll put one in with your photo as well, which should generate a bit more traffic for you.
    Cheers
    Barry

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  5. you have some very nice images here Jeremy, excellent site

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  6. Superb images of a Turtle Dove, I had one in the garden, a garden tick and I had to shoo it away as the neighbours cat was stalking it. Gutted!!!

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  7. Absolutely grand series of photos. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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