MARK NOWERS, TURTLE dove conservation advisor at the RSPB, M always tells his volunteers not to go surveying in the rain. That's because if you want to track down these shy, expertly camouflaged birds, you need to listen out for the male's purring song and they don't sing in wet weather.

Yet here we are, strolling through the drizzle at Wrabness Nature Reserve, run by the Essex Wildlife Trust, hoping that a turtle dove will turn up, against the odds, and justify my blurry-eyed 6am train journey from London.

I'm here to learn about Operation Turtle Dove, the RSPB's project (together with Natural England and the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust) to save this iconic farmland species from the dual threats of habitat loss and hunting. The turtle dove is the UK's fastest declining bird species, with a population estimated at just 2,100 pairs following the 2021 National Turtle Dove Survey, down by an estimated 99 per cent since the 1970s.

Mark is just telling me that Essex is home to around 300 pairs, some 14 per cent of the national population, and that Wrabness is a core site for the species, when suddenly he stops, a huge smile on his face. He's heard a dove calling.

"Tingle down my neck," he whispers, delighted. I hear it too, a gentle cooing that feels somehow familiar despite the fact that I know for certain I'm hearing it for the first time. We listen for a moment before Mark jubilantly declares that it's actually two doves we can hear.