Woodpigeon Migration

Woodpigeons flock over Warnham LNR - J. Everitt

It is that time of year again when Woodpigeons throw up the age old question of where are the going too! If you look up in the sky on a cloudy morning in the first couple of hours of light you are almost guaranteed to see a true British wildlife spectacle as thousands of Woodpigeons are moving around the southern British counties looking for food. The spectacle varies from year to year but is usually between the end of October and mid-November so you still have a chance to see some for yourselves.

Over the past two mornings at Warnham LNR I have counted 17,978 Woodpigeons flying over the Reserve. They are not particularly high and are easily seen without the need for optics so you have no excuses for not seeing them! They tend to be in flocks of 20+ with anything up to thousands in a single group. The beady eyed among you will also find a number of other species in with the Woodpigeons too. In the last couple of days there have been plenty of Stock Doves, Redwing, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrushes and Starling all mixed in to the 'mega-flocks' presumably using the vast numbers of pigeons for protection against avian predators such as Sparrowhawks and Peregrines.

Woodpigeon Flock - J. Everitt

There is a serious lack of research done into the subject of Woodpigeon migration and at present there are two schools of thought. The first is that these are predominantly British birds that simply group together in the winter to look for food on mass similar to the idea of tit-flocks which are a regular feature in the colder months. The second school of thought is that the pigeons are the British birds but are also supplemented by birds from Scandinavia and possibly northern France too. This would make more sense however there is very little evidence of birds arriving off the sea on the east coast of Britain nor is there that much evidence of large groups departing Britain along the south coast.

There is also the oddity that all of the birds seen going over Warnham and other watch points in the local area are heading in a north-easterly direction so exactly where they are going is still a mystery. If they were simply moving towards the continent why would they be heading in a northerly direction...its enough to boggle most conservationists minds but one thing for sure they would not be doing it for fun, there MUST be a reason.

Perhaps this is an area for a colour ringing or geo-locator project to find out where the birds are actually coming from and what they are doing when they arrive in the south of Britain. There is no doubt that most of the pigeons feed on winter sown Rape fields which we have an abundance of in the south east but is this a big enough draw for hundreds of thousands of pigeons to move to feed on? The simple answer is nobody knows! Anyway it is an amazing sight and you can see it with your very own eyes in your very own back garden so do keep an eye out and see how many you can count.

More Woodpigeons - 13,169 birds in a single morning!