pigeon migrants

[Adge Cutler]

Is that true? Radar can pick up birds?

Wow!

Only the feathered variety Danny so don't go out and by a set yet.

 

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/radar/

[Dannyboy220]

You're on to me!!

Still pretty impressive I suppose, still hope for the future!

Even more amazing to think we can build planes that can avoid it.

[UKPoacher]

There isn't anywhere near the numbers of wood pigeons in this part of France than I encountered in the UK. Even when travelling about all over France in the camper I've not seen any flocks of pigeons on crops. Every now and then I'll see a large flock of a couple of hundred or so pigeons at high altitude, travelling fast but I've never managed to get the binos on them to check whether they are woodies or homers on a race.

 

I think that the reason the UK gets so many woodies compared to France is the Gulf stream makes winters much more mild. In the south of France there are massive migrations passing through the mountain valleys from north-east Europe heading south towards Spain in autumn and back again in spring. There are websites listing sightings of the flocks.

 

There are various ways of hunting them, some involve stringing nets across the valleys and others involve shooting pigeons from tree-top hides. Decoys for shooters are live birds tethered to a perch that can be made to rotate by the hunter pulling a cord. The netters use white wooden paddles that they throw into the air as pigeons approach. The white flashes are supposed to attract the pigeons and make them fly lower. When pigeons are seen the hunter pulls the cord causing the perch to rotate and the pigeon flaps its wings to regain balance.