Wood Pigeon must have had an excellent breeding season this year.
I thought my previous record of 40,137 on the 4/11/2020 of birds observed moving south from the watch point was a one off!!
But today (Same date 4/11) the weather and visibility were excellent, and a record was set of 41, 897 in 4 hours of observations.
Hello Martyn
Interesting to note the huge numbers of Woodpigeon you have recorded. I wonder if there are more nowadays because of a different approach by farmers. In Lincolnshire, when I was a teenager, farmers belonged to Woodpigeon Clearance Societies so that a group of farmers would employ somebody to shoot the birds. The same applied to rabbits.
More recently, farmers are using scarers which are placed in fields & timed to go off, like a gun, making the pigeons take off & go elsewhere. This does not reduce the population.
Just a thought.
Shaun
Hi Shaun
Thanks for you email.
Yes a very interesting point! And I too remember farmers shooting WP and seeing them dead strung up on fences, which as you say you thankfully don’t see today. Also it might be me.. but they seem to be breeding more commonly in gardens now. My daughter had a pair in her garden just a few feet from the children’s trampoline and they didn’t seem to bother at all. Excellent news about the Cettis warbler over-wintering…I’d swoop my WP for your Cettis..ha
Regards
Martyn