Glaucous Gull Cley Marshes, East Bank ​

Female American Wigeon, Grimley ​

I used Opticron Traveller ED binoculars, MM4ED60 travel scope and USM2 smart phone adapter on this trip. For more details on each - see the Opticron website. 

​All photographs © Jonny Rankin, 2018. 

With Dove Step I have three aims; endurance, awareness raising and fundraising. 

Across these three objectives I consider that Dove Step 3 was the most successful in all respects. The endurance is obvious enough - the walk was completed, on schedule, in 28 consecutive days from the south to north coast. 704.5 hard won miles. The fundraising from Dove Step 3 is similarly easy to call a success; £5873.12 and £6857.90 when GiftAid is added. Adding to a overall total, across Dove Steps, of over £12000. For my former self back in 2013, before we executed the first journey, this figure is astonishing and a point of much pride. I certainly couldn't have donated that much myself and it is wholly gratifying that across the three journeys Dove Step has attracted such a total. 

This leaves awareness raising, perhaps the most difficult to quantify, despite the fact that it is almost as time consuming as the training and endurance! So, here follows an effort to demonstrate the least visible side of Dove Step.  

I realised early on with Dove Step that the actual endurance event was about 10% of the total output. What is the point of surpassing physical and mental limits, enduring what, at times feels impossible, if nobody knows about it? 

As such my mantra when it comes to any medium of coverage is; always say yes. No matter how inconvenient, no matter how much other issues life is piling on at any one times; say yes. 

If the resulting coverage attracts £10 then the effort is worth it. 

This year alone the awareness raising side of Dove Step 3 has encompassed literally every medium possible. 

• Five public speaking engagements;
• Multiple printed and online news pieces;
• Online interviews;
• Several radio interviews including both Spanish and British stations; and
• 2 days of filming during Dove Step 3 for Spanish national television and the La Adventura del Saber programme - which you can watch at the below link.   

In all honesty, fitting in filming around 25 mile walking days was sub-optimal. It was more than enough to eat, sleep and repeat. However, as I said at the outset of this blog; endurance is about 10% of the total output. If no one knows what you are doing - you may as well not be doing it! 

So if you have a Dove Step itch you need to scratch there are a multitude of ways to scratch away. As well as the above episode of La Adventura del Saber you can listen to an interview I did for BBC Radio Suffolk at the below Soundcloud link. If you don't want to see my face for radio or hear my voice then you can also find some words I wrote at the back of the current, July 2017, edition of Bird Watching Magazine. 

I can honestly say that aside from family and friends there is little in life I would push so hard for and work so hard towards as Dove Step.

The reasons for this are simple. Turtle Doves, for me, encompass the natural world. The Afro-European migrants presently with us, our farmland birds, the habitat pressures our bird species face, the illegal and legal hunting of our birds. Everything.

Dove Step encompasses my frustrations, it is a conduit for my emotions around all these issues, an output in the face of so many things which seem out of control and utterly opposed to our natural world. It is a big burden and a big blessing. It rationalises the irrational. This is my small fight-back against the immeasurable factors that are simply out of my control and indeed the control of anyone with a deep seated care for the natural world.

That reads as pretty melodramatic - but I am comfortable with it. Purely because it is true.

The July 2017, edition of Bird Watching Magazine is on sale now and the Dove Step 3 JustGiving page is still available to receive donations at the following link; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/DoveStep3 

Andalusia was the most fertile section of the trip, with the most species and new  habitats encountered across the first few days. Seeing a new bird or spectacular congregation of birds provided mental stimulus and kept the mind off any ailments or inclement weather throughout the trip. White Storks and Griffon Vulture, for example, were a near constant as we passed through Andalusia and beyond and I never grew tired of their presence; either bird appearing on a thermal ahead usually coincided with a warming of the day and the comfort of knowing I had covered 10 - 20km. ​

All images © Jonny Rankin. I used Opticron Traveller binoculars and Bridgedale socks exclusively throughout Dove Step 3. You can still support our fundraising at the following link; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/DoveStep3 

All images © Jonny Rankin. Take the #My200BirdYear Challenge; www.birdwatching.co.uk/my200/

From July 2015 - December 2016 I shared wildlife experiences with 23000 of my fellow West Suffolk kinsmen and women in the Bury Mercury. Whilst I don’t have a complete record of each Wildlife Wonders column, I do have a partial record. This is thanks in no small part to Lilian Fairley who kept copy and thereafter good friend Malcolm Fairley who collated them into a birthday gift. Thanks to their thoughtfulness - I know I delivered at least 50 columns with a crude subject breakdown as follows:

• Birds: 30
• Reptiles: 2
• Moths: 9
• Butterflies: 5
• Mammals: 4

I say crude because some columns could be landscape level, whole sensory experiences, including perhaps a flock of birds or focusing on the sunset for example. Always at the core was an enthralling and usually delighting wildlife experience within a stone’s throw from my Bury St. Edmund’s home. 

With the considerable effort required to get in shape and truly prepared for Dove Step 3, I stopped Wildlife Wonders without marking the occasion. So, firstly a big thanks to my editor Russell Cook, and my personal editor - Mum! Thanks too, to all the photographers and artists who furnished my words with exquisite illustrations, including, and by no means exhaustively; Stephen Rutt, Jon Evans, Mike Arreff, Mark Gash, Barry Woodhouse and the great Richard Thewlis.

Here is the very first Wildlife Wonders column from 22nd July, 2015… 
​
Whilst I give myself the moniker of naturalist, I am always learning, I am currently most competent with birds, butterflies, moths and some of the more prominent insects. I would be overwhelmed if pressed to identify hedgerow vegetation or wild flowers. That is not to say I don’t very much enjoy them and the pollinators dutifully attending them. My daily appreciation of nature has developed organically - one year a dragonfly could cause a summer long obsession, the next a glimpsed Peregrine could initiate a vigil of this impressive raptor. 

I have also morphed from a habitual nature reserve attendee to an observer of the wider countryside. Much of my nature worship is now undertaken to fit around the 9 – 5, be it on dog walks, whilst cycling, or when running close to home; this makes the surprises all the sweeter! After all, expectation is high when you visit a nature reserve. I would expect one of nature’s spectacles when visiting Lackford Lakes for example, if not a Kingfisher then a Starling murmuration or a vibrant dawn chorus. 
Expectation is not so high on a morning’s dog walk, so when a small butterfly cascaded down to a head-height leaf yesterday, I was thrilled to make out the under wing, defining it is as a Purple Hairstreak. This delicate pint-sized butterfly is not uncommon, but it is just typically out of reach, and loyal to the treetops of its favoured oak trees. To have one come down to my level, seemingly presenting itself for my pleasure, is the undoubted highlight of my week. It rested with closed wings, hiding the vivid purple associated with its flight, but showing off the namesake white hairstreaks and orange- fringed eyelets. The delicate orange coloration is also reflected in the very tips of its antennae. With a flutter it ascended - back to the tree tops and honeydew bounty that it feeds upon.

On the 2nd of August this year I met Titan. Titan is a Turtle Dove, a unique Turtle Dove; the only UK Turtle Dove to be successfully satellite tagged. He was satellite tagged by RSPB scientists in my home county of Suffolk last summer. He has now made the return trip to and from sub- Saharan Africa giving vital data, hugely increasing understanding of the migratory route taken by ‘our’ Turtle Doves each year.

There are layers of importance to this meeting for me. First, it is always a pleasure to see a Turtle Dove; for a species which has suffered a 91% decline in breeding birds across the last twenty years any sighting is most welcome. Added to that the attractiveness of the species in its own right - both on sight and sound - making any encounter memorable. The fact that Titan has added so much to our understanding of Turtle Doves’ migration, places him at the forefront of migration science. Titan is the only survivor out of a total of seven tagged birds. The reality that only he has made it to and from Africa is an acute demonstration of the mortal peril this species faces. To then overcome the ‘needle in a hay stack’ issue of finding a single bird in dense coastal strip makes the encounter hugely gratifying.

Aside from these physical issues which all had to resolved in getting us both face to face, there was, for me, layers of emotional attachment. I have spent the last few years wholly dedicated to Turtle Doves, pushing myself beyond my physical limits to raise funds for Operation Turtle Dove. As well as the journeys undertaken, we have pursued as much awareness raising as possible, ensuring the plight of our ailing Turtle Dove population is kept towards the top of the conservation agenda. With so many worthy causes and species threatened by extinction this is no mean feat.
​
Across the last two years friends and I have drawn a self-propelled line from Saltholme RSPB reserve in the north-east of England all the way to Bayonne on the French-Spanish border. 1000 miles of endurance completed in just 27 days. We call our journey Dove Step and it seeks to mimic the migratory route of our breeding Turtle Doves. In doing so our aims are two fold: raise both funds and awareness for Operation Turtle Dove. I should point out that neither my friends nor I are athletes capable of naturally undertaking back-to-back marathon journeys each day. It is granite mental resolve, our belief in what we are doing, which allows us to push ourselves to the limit and beyond. I could not personally have achieved the endurance feats of the last two years without this mental resolve.

To date our efforts, via your support, have raised £8k for Operation Turtle Dove. Funds from last year’s journey allowed for 9ha of Turtle Dove seed mix to be sown in the East of England, providing food for Turtle Doves on their return from Africa and again later in the season when they have young to feed. The funds from this year are going towards plugging the last remaining gap in scientific understanding of the lifecycle; what is affecting Turtle Doves on the wintering grounds? To this end, funds will be used to support research over the upcoming winter period. RSPB scientists are launching an expedition to study birds in Senegal in wintering congregations. This tangible application of our support makes it easy to continue with our journey. It makes me feel less helpless and believe that the population could stabilise and we could retain Turtle Doves as a UK breeder. Turtle Doves are of course also indicative of other farmland birds and other migratory birds using the Afro-European flyway, with all the legal and illegal hunting and habitat pressures therein. Whilst Turtle Doves are my favourite, I of course care deeply about all our birds and these wider issues.
 
The route Titan has taken on migration tells us exactly what we must do next; Spain. Specifically, a crossing of the western side of the country. We will make this journey completely on foot and leave in early 2017 - over 700 miles of back-to-back marathon distances - our biggest challenge to date.
​
You can find out more about Titan and follow his upcoming return migration via the RSPB website and follow our progress towards our next journey on the Dove Step 3 blog.
​
Never Give Up!