Monday 14th - Oriental Turtle Dove

As I arrived at Moreton-in-marsh to spend valentines day with my girlfriend, twitching a MEGA couldn't have been further from my mind, but with an excited phone call from Dan Pointon informing me that the Oriental Turtle Dove from December had been re found in Chipping Norton, I was gone!

I arrived on site at 15.25 and within minutes had been treated to brief but good scope views and during the following 35 minutes I managed to scope the bird a further 2 times. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a photograph and so returned the following day to try again. With lots of excited birders already on site when I arrived it was clear that a picture was going to be tricky and by midday there were at least 500 people waiting to get a glimpse of the dove. The dove however did not play ball and only a minority of the ever growing crowd managed to see the bird yesterday. I hope that the bird sticks around and everyone who made the effort yesterday is able to catch up with this stunning bird over the next few days. Should the bird remain I'm sure I will nip back for a few pictures!