A conundrum for pigeon watchers.

[JDog]

There is a mixed deciduous wood opposite my house. The wood is on a bank and measures 70m by 400m or thereabouts and watching this wood for the past three years has taught me quite a lot about pigeon behaviour. It helps greatly that I can watch the wood from my bed where I am now.

One thing I have learned is that as soon as the easterly wind blows the wood is deserted by the two hundred pigeons which regularly roost there in the winter. It suddenly becomes too cold for them. Another interesting bit of knowledge (to me anyway) is that at first light in the winter the pigeons that are already there are joined by many others descending from a great height from who knows where. Whereas I may have watched two hundred pigeons go to roost maybe up to four hundred leave the wood to feed.

The conundrum, and the question for those pigeon observers, is why are there so many pigeons still roosting in the wood in the middle of May? I was out at 4:30 this morning to listen to the dawn chorus and in a half hour spell to 5:00 upwards of one hundred pigeons left the wood. There are a few pairs nesting in the wood. Why aren’t all of these mature birds partnered up and nesting elsewhere?

[ditchman]

cant give you an answer................but i can say a similar thing regards my partridges that visit my garden 3 times/day....they are a couple...why arnt they nesting now....some afternoons they just sit under the acer and while the time away...................

will your pigeons take some time out and nest later in the year ?............are they pushed for housing......?  and waiting for vacated nested areas ?.................

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello Jd,do the think the weather plays a big part as you mention with an easterly blow, the saying we have for fishing can also ring true, wind from the east fish bite least, weather patterns seem to have changed from years gone by,  the seasons then of spring/summer/autumn/winter you could rely on, today i am not so sure, the start of this week around the vale was more spring like but yesterday and last night a cold wind prevailed with low cloud, this morning sunny and warmer.       

[pigeon controller]

We are still seeing birds going to roost and of the eighty birds shot last weekend only two were young. We are seeing young birds all through the Autumn and winter. My only humble explanation is that the birds have been waiting for leaf cover to hide the nests from predators. 

[oldypigeonpopper]

5 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello Jd,do the think the weather plays a big part as you mention with an easterly blow, the saying we have for fishing can also ring true, wind from the east fish bite least, weather patterns seem to have changed from years gone by,  the seasons then of spring/summer/autumn/winter you could rely on, today i am not so sure, the start of this week around the vale was more spring like but yesterday and last night a cold wind prevailed with low cloud, this morning sunny and warmer.       

but there is still a colder wind blowing as i noticed while out shopping

[old'un]

Come back and tell us how many birds are going to roost from about mid/end of June onward.

Pigeons will not breed/pair-up in significant numbers until there is seed/corn available, a lot of early May/June young die due to the poor nutrition of green vegetation.   

Edited May 17, 2018 by old'un
To add some info

[marsh man]

8 hours ago, ditchman said:

cant give you an answer................but i can say a similar thing regards my partridges that visit my garden 3 times/day....they are a couple...why arnt they nesting now....some afternoons they just sit under the acer and while the time away...................

will your pigeons take some time out and nest later in the year ?............are they pushed for housing......?  and waiting for vacated nested areas ?.................

I would imagine the pair of French partridges ! are a barron pair of reared ones that haven't got any nest building instinct , the reared ones have a reputation of not being very good parents . 

[anser2]

To answer part of your question Jdog - Why aren’t all of these mature birds partnered up and nesting elsewhere? Not all wood pigeons nest at the same time. In any population, there will be birds that have just razed a brood and be recovering body condition before starting a second brood. This will take a month or more. Wood pigeons take 3 months before getting adult-type plumage and probably another 6 + months before they are old enough to breed themselves. So here we have another part of the population, not breeding which could make up your 200 birds. As for more birds leaving the roosting woods in the morning. It's possible that some pigeons are coming into the woods at last light or well before sunrise in the morning. I have often noticed pigeons flying over woods much later in mid-summer than in winter. They will sometimes move very early too and I can remember a few years ago bagging 20+ wood pigeons before sunrise in winter on rape close to the roosting wood. After 9 o'clock am you hardly saw a bird on the field until they dropped in for a final feed just before dusk.