Jump to content

How far will a woodie fly to feed?


Recommended Posts

gary.

regarding your thread that was my sole objective on my last post < ringed woodies >due to the prolific response ie nil replies i learned **** all about the distance birds would travel.

sorry to put a dappener on your thread mate.

regards mark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you think birds always return to the same roosting wood or do they have more than one roost (except when nesting)?

 

If a pigeon roosts in an area with plenty of feed crop but the following year the crop rotation reduces the feed crops, will a pigeon fly greater distances to get to feed or say sod it and move to a new roost closer to the feed?

 

Example, you roost shoot a known roosting wood up to darkness. When you leave there are no birds in the wood. Were did they go to kip?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

we shoot 3 different areas of scotland and I find the birds move with the food just now there are very few birds in the aberdeen and fife area but where they are sowing below Edinburgh there are thousands of pigeon. normaly by the 20th march they are in Fife and by the first week in april they will all be up in Aberdeenshire and the Moray areas. Is it like this in England :sick:??/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all ''SORRY MARK''  I had not read your thread, and didn't realise that we were on the same lines as each other.

 

I will give some very interesting data with regards to bird ringing as well...

 

Distances woodies will fly...

 

The furthest distance I have ever known woodies to fly for a good field was 12 miles.  Directly, from roost to a very badly drilled bean field.  Normally, it is no further than 4 miles.  This is interesting, as we all know where differing flocks of birds roost.  Surely, they will be within a 4 mile radius of the roost wood (somewhere) and we should be able to find them.  The truth is that on some days they are just not out and about...

 

I have returned 4 rings to the natural history museum over the years.  The most interesting one was a bird that was ringed at an estimated age of 1 year old.  A client shot it 8 years later 14kms from where it was initially ringed.  The oldest woodie ever returned was 20.

 

I also wrote to the British trust for ornithology for further study reports.  The info that I got back was very interesting...

 

It is a long winded report but I will try and extract a few of the main points...

 

1. The area of oilseed rape crop, without doubt, determines the size and movement patterns of woodpigeon populations.

 

2.  The median distance between ringing and recovery for all aged birds (taking all ringing studies into account) is just 5 kms.

 

3.  The woodpigeons in good arable areas moved far less than the birds in poorer arable areas.

 

4.  The median distance for woodpigeons ringed and recovered as adults was a mere 2 kms.

 

5.  Radio tagged, young, newly fledged birds were found to disperse initially, they returned to the same area as where they were hatched to breed themselves, they then remained in the locality of their first breeding attempt untill recovered.

 

6.  Of 2,543 recoveries of woodpigeons ringed in Britain and Ireland only 1% was recovered overseas:

 

28 in France

1 in Germany

 

7.  Out of all the woodpigeon ringing studies carried out by differant countries on the continent, only 8 foreign birds have been recovered here:

 

3 from the Netherlands

2 from Germany

2 from Denmark

1 from Norway

 

8.  The study has been run since 1965.  It concludes that, although, fiercely contested, only a very small number of woodpigeons actually emigrate to the continent and, similarly, that very few foreign birds reach these shores during their autumn migration.

 

9.  Large scale costal movements of woodpigeon have without doubt been noted.  In 1994 between 10th October and 25th November a total of 88,397 were logged flying south at Landguard point in Suffolk.  They were tracked, and were thought likely to be birds from Fennoscandia heading for France or Iberia.  They stayed on the coast, never found to be feeding.

 

If you do shoot a ringed woodpigeon or any other bird (last year we shot a jackdaw that was 4 years old 2 kms from where it was ringed)  always return the ring.

 

The ringing authority will always send you the facts on the bird, and it helps them to conclude their studies.

 

Draw your own conclusions from these facts...

 

They are scientific studies that go to great lengths to obtain the information.

 

Comments please...

 

All the best...

 

GARY...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its amazing that so much researchhas been done into the woodpigeon and its habits.

 

The fact that they don,t move far from "home", doesn,t come as a major suprise.

The age some of them live was much higher than I imagined.

 

But, the "migration" findings seem rather strange.

I can remember large flocks of pigeons coming across the Channel at Dover, it was even on the Southern TV news.

When I lived on the Thames marshes, we use to see large flocks crossing the Thames, from Essex.

 

I have never shot a woodpigeon with a ring, but I would certainly return it.

 

Gary, where is the full report available from ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Further to the recent talk on Woodpigeons found bearing rings, I would add that there is still a great deal to learn about Woodpigeons and it is through people like yourselves reporting the details of dead birds that the facts will be established.

As a percentage of the population only a small number  are ringed. which makes every report so valuable.  It would be very beneficial for many more to be ringed.

Although the ringing of Woodpigeons is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), other organisations such as the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Game Conservancy use the information for helping to monitor the Woodpigeon population.

When reporting a Woodpigeon ring, if informing the BTO by post, then write down the full ring number (even if sending the ring in as well, some get lost through the post) and as much information as possible about the finding circumstances.

Each year, I ring about one hundred nestlings in suburban Liverpool as part of a monitoring programme of the population here.  I am also looking at the interactions of the birds with agricultural operations.  The birds in the suburban area certainly fly out to feed on farmland (minimum 7 kilometres away) at certain times of the year and I have had a number of birds reported as shot in these areas.  It sounds like one of your forum members has shot several of these.

In the interests of further knowledge about Woodpigeons, I would be very grateful if anybody shooting a Woodpigeon bearing a ring would report the details.

                  Thanks in anticipation

                                                Pigeon Ringer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would like to know when these birds are having the rings put on them, If it is when they are on the nest I would have to say these are UK birds. we have huge movements in April with birds going North and again in September with masses of pigeon moving South. 1 of the guys who guides for me during the winter works on an oil rig 200 miles off shore and he has seen Pigeons resting on the rigs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...