Orkney Gun Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 (edited) Over many years as a keeper,I have come to believe, that the common woodpigeon unlike his cousin the homming/ferral variety, would only have a relatively small range, say 30-50 miles.However we here in the Orkney have expirienced some rather endurance feats by our feathered friend the woodpigeon..You see in order to reach us he would have to fly over the Pentland Firth ..bypass 2 other small barren uninhabited islands ... a distance to bother it.. (his cousin the homming pigeon could do this feat easy.. no sweat But upon arrival would find very little nesting/perching facilities,as we have no trees on the Orkney except a few beech/conifer that are around the houses for wind /gale protection,so he would have no roost/nest sites so why bother flying all this way.? Crows often make it ... blown off course in gales, or follow the migrating geese /duck. As I learned many years ago at the old "Game Conservancy" (Fordingbridge) THEY WILL OFTEN TAKE IT INTO THEIR HEAD AND GO..IRESPECTIVE OF ANYTHING. Does anyone eles experience this? where you think the woodpigeon has travelled many miles.. It would of course be impossible to say where the one you shot came from but I wonder?. Edited March 3, 2009 by Orkney Gun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 (edited) Here's a clue. Not quite sure how they'd steer it, mind... Edited March 3, 2009 by harfordwmj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerseaDavid Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Mersea Island is quite small and it does not have many woods so the pigeons dont stay on the island and I have seen pigeons coming from miles away to get on to the island and I dont know why. They will fly over many rape fields and drilled fields to get there in great numbers. They are a strange bird and hard to predict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonboy1 Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 it certainly keeps them interesting though does'nt it, i mean if we could predict everything a woody would do and knew exactly why it behaved in a certain way, we may shoot more but it would eventually get boring. Getting back to the original question, i've heard numerous times of huge flocks of wood pigeons covering hundreds of miles to find the best feeding areas, flying to the uk from france and other european countries,but why they fly over good feeding grounds to areas with very little trees or food is just one of the mysteries we'll probably never know for certain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGalway Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Didn't a hooded crow make it to Canada or the north east USA there a couple of years ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orkney Gun Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Yea it did make Canada..and woodys have flown from France to the south of England....But after all my years as a keeper I find the woody a remarkable bird,sometimes more than the "world flying travelling visitors" and marine life we so abundantly have here that is world famous... Still curious though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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