Wood Pigeon Migration (1 Viewer)

Interesting observation a couple of days ago. Driving back from the Moray Firth Coast to Strathspey in rainy dull conditions encountered huge numbers of Wood Pigeons, scattered along the road in groups of 10-30 birds at a time. Even across high open moor these flocks appeared every few hundred yards, taking grit from the road. These birds seemed quite slim looking compared to local birds, and seems that this was probably a large movement of birds grounded by the poor conditions and preparing to roost for the night.
Have read about movements in autumn off the continent so presume this was evidence of birds heading back?

John

jpoyner said:

Interesting observation a couple of days ago. Driving back from the Moray Firth Coast to Strathspey in rainy dull conditions encountered huge numbers of Wood Pigeons, scattered along the road in groups of 10-30 birds at a time. Even across high open moor these flocks appeared every few hundred yards, taking grit from the road. These birds seemed quite slim looking compared to local birds, and seems that this was probably a large movement of birds grounded by the poor conditions and preparing to roost for the night.
Have read about movements in autumn off the continent so presume this was evidence of birds heading back?

John

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From what I can gather the existence of large-scale Wood Pigeon migration to and from the Continent is hotly contested. A relative few are seen on oil rigs and at observatiories, but nothing that would correlate to the large numbers that are alleged to visit from the northern Continent in winter (by e.g. the Collins Bird Guide). Most continental and Scandinavian WPs winter in Iberia, reaching there through routes which bypass Britain, and large movements seen by those such as myself (c 2000 in a couple of hours over Aberdeen in early November) and others down south (many thousands over the Peak District) are usually put down to British local movements. Large movements on the English south coast in autumn are held to be birds arriving briefly from across the Channel which then re-orientate southward. The post-breeding numbers of this species in autumn in Britain are truly huge, and local dispersive flights are well accounted for. Whether they cross the North Sea in any numbers is still a matter for dispute (and has been disputed by e.g. the late Chris Mead and the Migration Atlas, which found no evidence for passage of British birds to and from Scandinavia - or anywhere else). Certainly unambiguous sight records of very large numbers heading straight out to, or in from the N. Sea on sea watches are generally lacking. Does seem odd for such a strong flyer, but there you are. Checking all the 'Scottish Bird Reports' from 1968 to 2000 produced a mere handful of records of small numbers of the species at likely migratory spots, and in some years none at all.

certainly been seeing small groups moving high N/NW over the last few weeks

RecoveringScot said:

Whether they cross the North Sea in any numbers is still a matter for dispute (and has been disputed by e.g. the late Chris Mead and the Migration Atlas, which found no evidence for passage of British birds to and from Scandinavia - or anywhere else). Certainly unambiguous sight records of very large numbers heading straight out to, or in from the N. Sea on sea watches are generally lacking. Does seem odd for such a strong flyer, but there you are. Checking all the 'Scottish Bird Reports' from 1968 to 2000 produced a mere handful of records of small numbers of the species at likely migratory spots, and in some years none at all.

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Tied in with the huge thrush fall which we have just been blessed with here were unusually large numbers of Wood Pigeons, peaking at c.150 a couple of days ago. This is one of the highest counts for the island. Where these birds are heading too we don't know, but given the intended destination of all the other birds on the island at the time (thrushes, finches, waders) it would seem that Scandinavia was favourite. Annual numbers here are less than fifty birds, so it certainly doesn't appear on Fair Isle in the large flocks that are reported on the mainland (i.e Aberdeen). Interestingly, numbers tend to peak here in spring, not autumn.

Just a theory...
I live in the southeast of the Netherlands, where in autumn easterly winds can bring in 100,000s of migrating Wood Pigeons (last year about 2/3 of the total number of visibly migrating birds!)... This year the numbers were very large, and many flew north/west into the Netherlands looking for fouraging grounds (thus baffling the migration watchers in areas where Wood Pigeons are a less abundant sight). I could imagine *some* Wood Pigeons ending up in Britain last autumn, following the coastline back up north and for that reason being more common in spring (and especially this spring!)

Interestingly (well about as interesting as woodies get) there is a long series of records of Wood Pigeon migration over NE Hampshire in early November. This is of course not a coastal area. I and others used to watch them over Fleet Pond but now concentrate on my garden at Farnborough about three miles East. The movements are on a broad front - at Fleet the height of trees prevented birds more than half a mile east being counted but from home I can see waves of them as far west as the pond and up to five miles east, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were crossing most of Southern England.

Typically movements begin an hour after dawn and continue for about three hours, but big movements only happen after a day or two of gales and rain. This is reliable enough that I can look at the weather forecast and identify which days are going to be good in advance. To me this suggests normal Wood Pigeon migration over Britain simply goes straight over, high, and doesn't stop. After all, these are big, powerful, fast fliers that can store a lot of energy. We only get fall-out when headwinds and bad weather ground the birds en route.

Fair Islander said:

Tied in with the huge thrush fall which we have just been blessed with here were unusually large numbers of Wood Pigeons, peaking at c.150 a couple of days ago. This is one of the highest counts for the island. Where these birds are heading too we don't know, but given the intended destination of all the other birds on the island at the time (thrushes, finches, waders) it would seem that Scandinavia was favourite. Annual numbers here are less than fifty birds, so it certainly doesn't appear on Fair Isle in the large flocks that are reported on the mainland (i.e Aberdeen). Interestingly, numbers tend to peak here in spring, not autumn.

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The peak count of 150 a couple of days ago certainly seems to tie in well with the timing of the birds I saw moving through here. Most of the groups of birds I watched seemed to head off in a NE direction heading for the Moray Firth coastline.

John

I saw a flock of 20 yesterday heading south over the sea about 500m out from the shore. They certainly gave the impression that they were on passage rather than local birds.

Stuart

Wood Pigeon migration in Scotland

Hi John

I am completing the wood pigeon account for the new Birds of Scotland book and have written a fair bit about their migration. Basically there is a lot more to find out! Your record is very interesting (and as noted, ties in with the exceptional arrival on Fair Isle). I would be very interested to receive more details of the lcoations of the birds you saw.

Cheers

Clive McKay

They are vagrants in Dubai, we had one earlier in the year. First for a few years.

in ten years working on the North Sea oil rigs I have seen just one woodpigeon.

migration

I'm pretty sure that a large number of woodpigeons migrate to my garden at this time of year. The fast disappearance of all the birdfood that I put out bears this out. I only wish it were true that they go overseas.

Thought I'd bump this one up a bit as I expect this year's big Wood Pigeon movement to be sometime this week. If the gale blows out today in the North-east then it might be tomorrow: look for a bright morning fater strong winds and rain.

Movement over Farnborough (Hampshire) seems to start almost at daybreak and some big totals of birds can be involved - a thousand Woodies an hour over your house is worth seeing: South coast stations in the last few years have had 50,000, 60,000, even 80,000 in a day.

John