Nightingale and Turtle Dove Research

The client

Kent Wildlife Trust led the Turtle Dove tagging project, supported by local group Marden Wildlife and with guidance from RSPB's Operation Turtle Dove and their Essex-based researchers. The Nightingale geolocator study was carried out with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), as part of a wider programme of ecological work in the Upper Beult farmer cluster delivered through collaboration between KWT, South East Rivers Trust, and Southern Water.

The challenge

Nightingale and Turtle Dove are two of Britain's most iconic, and fastest declining, summer migrants, now largely confined to south-east England and East Anglia, with Kent as their stronghold. To reverse these declines, conservationists need a much better understanding of how both species use habitat during the breeding season, and — in the Nightingale's case — where they go for the rest of the year, since they spend only a short window in Britain each year (April to late July) before migrating to wintering areas in west Africa.

What we did

Our Senior Ecologist Chas Holt supported two research projects over the summer. For Turtle Doves, this involved fitting GPS tags to birds in the Marden area to collect data on habitat use and home ranges during the breeding season, using a specialist tag attachment method advised on by RSPB researchers in Essex. For Nightingales, several birds were fitted with small geolocators as part of a BTO study, to be retrieved next spring when the birds return to their breeding sites.

The outcome achieved

The Turtle Dove data will help inform how KWT supports the species in the Marden area, strengthens engagement with local landholders, and builds a clearer picture of the optimal habitat mosaics needed at different scales. The Nightingale geolocators, once retrieved, will reveal migratory routes and wintering areas in west Africa, filling a significant gap in understanding the species' ecology outside the breeding season. Together, this research feeds into the wider Upper Beult farmer cluster programme, with the core aim of maintaining and growing the Low Weald's important Nightingale population, and benefiting a wealth of other biodiversity in the process.