大象传媒

Breeding is what spring is all about and some of the woodland inhabitants of Muncaster Castles have already been hard at work producing young. Janet Sumner meets Muncaster Castle's wildlife expert Jenny Holden to look into a nest box, hoping to find tawny owls. However the adult bird that flies out is not an owl - it's a stock dove and she has chicks in the nestbox. Jenny brings a chick out for a health check. It's not particularly gorgeous at this stage of its life. Stock doves are the original pigeons and are in decline and are on the amber list of British birds. Wood pigeons are far more commonly seen in fields, whilst the stock dove is a woodland bird. They like nesting in owl boxes because they use the same sort of holes in trees as owls. The chick is about two weeks old and still has the egg tooth on its beak.