Although I was the ghost writer for twelve issues of ‘The Pigeon Post’ (the magazine by birds for birds; omnibus version available on Amazon), I have to admit that pigeons are just about my least favourite family. It’s a close thing between them, pheasants and parrots!

Genuine Rock Doves are hard to find these days, but there is still a healthy population in the Cape St. Vincent area in south-west Portugal.

Turtle Doves are about the most attractive of the Streptopelia tribe, but sadly in decline. Only a few now breed in the Algarve, but they are more plentiful in the extensive cork oak forests to the north. Their normal migration route from sub-Saharan Africa to northern Europe in spring takes them through central Spain. Easterly winds can deflect them to western Portugal, as on 14 April 2004 when there were dozens in the Cape St. Vincent woodlands, accompanied by Europe’s first Namaqua Dove.

The few migrant Turtle Doves I see in my valley, like the one above, are in spring and early autumn, but on 8 November 2024 one arrived from the north-east with a Collared Dove. The pair landed on a nearby building, stayed for several minutes, and then left to the south-west together. My ’scope confirmed the Turtle Dove was not an eastern!

Cuckoos are a pain, at least to the host species concerned. Red-chested was the common ‘typical’ cuckoo in the Ethiopian highlands. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo arrived on Santa Maria in October 2010, one of four island records.