I went out for a walk on Monday morning and as I parked the car at 0710 a large flock of pigeons flew past. Just Woodpigeons, nothing very special, but hundreds of them so quite interesting. And then another flew past, and another and I started counting. In 15 minutes c5000 birds flew past; and then in the next 15 minutes another c2000 flew past; and then in the next 90+ minutes another c500.
All of these birds, in flocks of a few to several hundred birds, were flying up the Nene Valley in a southwesterly direction. Some flocks were quite high – high enough that I might well have missed them if I hadn’t been in pigeon-spotting mode.
I’m not sure whether these were birds leaving a roost – must have been some roost – or whether they were immigrants from the continent. In fact, I know nothing about them except they were certainly Woodpigeons and I’ve not seen so many at Stanwick Lakes ever before. And there weren’t similar numbers on Tuesday or Thursday mornings.
It’s not quite like the flocks of billions of Passenger Pigeons seen by Audubon and Wilson in the early nineteenth century but it’ll have to do.
Bloomsbury do mention my Passenger Pigeon book on their website now. We are just finishing off the edits and the artwork for the cover is all done.
I think about Passenger Pigeons every day but it did strike me in the last week that there are an awful lot of US vagrants around – few of them in conveniently easy localities.
There have been American Robins, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Hermit Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Cape May Warbler, a whole bunch of ducks and waders, and even a Mourning Dove in Britain and Ireland.
When the Passenger Pigeon was at its commonest, when there were billions of them, it was thought that more than a third, almost a half, of all the birds in North America were Passenger Pigeons. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that some of them might have made their way across the Atlantic to Europe?
However, there is no record of Passenger Pigeon accepted on the British list, Republic of Ireland list or Northern Ireland list.
There are records of Passenger Pigeons in the British Isles but none of them look very convincing – we know that there were many captive birds and even that some travellers to and from the USA released Passenger Pigeons in Europe in the hope that they might breed. The great John James Audubon brought many Passenger Pigeons to the UK on his visit and gave them as gifts to rich folk whom he wanted to buy his work.
In my meanderings through the Passenger Pigeon literature I came across this record documented in Thompson, W. 1851. The Natural History of Ireland. Volume 3. Birds comprising the order natatores. Reeve and Benham, London.
A Mr Fitzgerald writes from Ireland of finding a passenger pigeon exhausted near Tralee and keeping it in captivity for two years. Its exhausted state led him to believe that it must have crossed the Atlantic ‘as a bird of its powers of flight would not have been exhausted unless it came from some very great distance’. No date is given for the capture.
That sounds quite promising (only promising) as a genuine record although it would be really nice to know the date and that seems to be unavailable. Tralee, Co Kerry, would be just the type of west-facing area that would be on your list of possible sites for a genuine Passenger Pigeon to be found. And in the period before 1851 Passenger Pigeons were still very numerous.
There’s a bit of me that wants the Passenger Pigeon to have crossed the Atlantic a few times (that’s from the heart) and there’s a bit of me that thinks that it must be quite likely that the strongly-flying Passenger Pigeon, the most abundant bird in North America by far, could have managed the journey (that’s from the head).
It is a matter of utmost triviality, but I wonder…
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The image at the link below is of two Passenger Pigeons on display in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh.
With a bit of squinting you can make out that the label reads that “male was shot in Co. Waterford, Ireland in 1860”. Sadly, no details of date or circumstances. What is the story of these two birds I wonder?
http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/image.php?ref=p0000032977.jpg&width=1024&height=1024&scalemode=&ext=.jpg
Very good Mark. Sad, that we’ve been robbed of the sight and sounds of the Passenger Pigeon (and other species persecuted to extinction) – assuming you’re an American! I too have seen large flocks of Woodies flying over my patch and I meet this with joy at the sight of what must be some vis mig, plus an element of trepidation that the more Pigeons the more ‘wildlife management’ will be employed!
Hopefully we have learnt our lessons – but presumably you cover that in your book!
Wonder if all those Wood Pigeons are telling you some farmland birds are doing really well,guess we would all like the smaller farmland birds to be more numerous.Intensive(what a derogatory term dreamed up by someone who doesn’t understand farming has progressed in food production over thousands of years not 50 years)farming certainly suits the lovely Wood Pigeon,they are a lovely bird if anyone looks properly and very adaptable(one even nests on the corner of a local supermarket).
They also have a similar work ethic to yourself Mark(that is intended as a compliment to yourself and the Wood Pigeon).
Dennis, I don’t think “intensive” is a derogatory term; it simply describes (in this context) an approach to farming that maximises yield. Farmers have done what society asked of them in producing more food and the technological advances that have permitted the spectacular increases in yield are impressive when considered solely from the point of view of how much food can be produced per hectare. Unfortunately, although it was surely not anyone’s intention that this should be the case, many of the technologies that have been used to achieve this – drainage, synthetic fertiliser use, pesticides, changing patterns of crop rotation etc – have turned out to be unfriendly to much of the wildlife that formerly shared the landscape with the crops and livestock. Some species, such as the wood pigeon, are able to thrive in the modern agricultural landscape but many more cannot. Anyone who has lived in the countryside over the past half century or so can have seen this with their own eyes and there is plenty of data to demonstrate objectively the decline of wildflowers, insects, many bird species and so on. An abundance of stinging nettles and wood pigeons does not compensate for the general reduction in diversity.
No-one is expecting farming to return to nineteenth century methods but some organisations such as the RSPB and some individual farmers have demonstrated that it is possible to run a modern productive farm whilst incorporating measures that give wildlife a chance and if we care about the decline of species such as Turtle Doves, Sky Larks, Yellow Wagtails and so on we need more farms to do this. It is not a slur on farmers, or an attack, to consider how changes in the structure of the funding paid to them might shift the balance in this direction.
Dennis – yes woodpigeons are doing well. The Farmland bird Index would be even lower if it weren’t propped up by rising woodpigeon numbers.
Thanks for writing a book about the Passenger Pigeons and their demise. I’m 54 now, but as kid I was given a book of information about wildlife (can’t remember its name). One of the facts in that colourful book was about the extinction, by humans, of all the thousands of Passenger Pigeons in N. America. As a child of about ten years (I suppose) and who was already interested in animals, this story had a profound effect on me (along with another book about Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle). I think it these books played a part in my lifelong interest in nature conservation. So, once again, thanks for writing the book – I look forward to reading it. And, I hope your book will inspire some of the present generation of young people to get interested in nature conservation.
p.s. I’m seeing largish (30ish) flocks of Wood Pigeons too. I’m glad the Purple Sprouting Broccoli in my garden is under nets!
The uptake of winter oilseed rape over the years has certainly helped the overwintering woodpigeon population. Shooting doesn’t seem to make much of an indent into the population, and I think sometimes putting decoys out to attract them just encourages them onto your land, with little reduction in numbers. We do however have people ringing up quite regularly wanting to shoot pigeons, and we have to turn them away, as it wouldn’t be safe to have too many different people out and about with guns. These people are not of the stereotypical shooting community either but very much working class.
Having lots of woodpigeons on the farm does mean it’s worth keeping an eye out for the odd peregrine, and my best birding moment to date is whilst rolling a field of recently sown barley, completely out of the blue I saw a puff of feathers and a peregrine carrying off a woodpigeon that had been feeding on that field.
As habitats get simpler some – usually fewer species – do better, more lose out as niches disappear. I’ve never believed that farmers were solely responsible for what has happened and feel it is even less so now as they come under more and more pressure from effectively monopolistic supermarket buyers. However, going way back to when I was studying agriculture, it was becoming clear that technology and ethics had parted company – we have continued with the 1960s mantra of if you can do it it means you should. Thank heavens Europe has resisted some of the extremes of agricultural technology – hormone injecting dairy cows, GM – but that has been largely due to the public/consumers rather than the NFU version of agriculture – after all, our Secretary of State thinks the many millions opposed to GM are ‘wicked’. I think he doesn’t have enough biological knowledge to know what he’s talking about and should be deeply concerned about emerging weed resistance to Glyphosate in soya in Brazil – especially as I’d predict that resistance to pesticides, drugs etc is going to turn out to be one of the major problems of the next 50 years.
Andy – you are spot on regarding the impact of WOSR in recent years, although I believe that nutritionally it is a bit poor, which I suppose explains why have to consume so much of it and why they can cause so much crop damage.
Many older farmers have told me that woodpigeons used to benefit greatly from the widespread growing of brassica fodder crops, not such a common practice these days. I suppose OSR has filled the void.
I do enjoy the occasional bit of pigeon shooting, pigeon is a much underrated meat, imho. Hugh’s pigeon pitta recipe does take some beating.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/15411/pigeon-pittas-with-pea-and-peppercorn-puree
Do have a look at the excellent, visible migration (Dutch-run) website called ‘Trektellen’ where, on the GB page, you can see the reports of vis miggers from all over the UK.
Wood pigeons make these mass movements at this time of year, given the right weather conditions (light winds and clear skies). One counter in Derbyshire who has been ‘vis migging’ decades before it became fashionable, clocked up over 60,000 passing over the eastern fringes of the Pennines in about four hours on 4th November (the same day you saw yours Mark) and several big counts can be found on Trektellen – see Winter Hill (near Bolton) and check back to their report (also for the 4th November). They recorded 27,880 flying over by lunchtime…a spectacle to rival swirling waders on the Wash – and available for us who live far from the rarity-hot spots on the east coast!
Nick Bee
Nick – many thanks for that info
I am aware that Woodpigeons migrate, but a 10-day visit to Fair Isle in October underlined this. The number of species breeding and wintering on Fair Isle is quite limited, so any other species seen there at this time of year is passing through. So it is a brilliant place to see visual migration (along with a few cracking rarities). There were no more than 3 Woodpigeons on any single day, but more of a surprise was a single Grey Heron and Great-spotted Woodpecker. Species in much greater numbers were Fieldfare, Redwing, Robin, Blackbird and Blackcap. It was quite an education to be reminded that species on the move are not fussy about habitat, settling down to feed anywhere, on the cliffs and the maritime heaths. There are hardly any trees or bushes on the island, so to see hundreds of these birds out of their normal habitat was remarkable.
Phil – Sounds great.
Phil – Sounds great.
Two years later! I have just purchased “Message from Martha” and it is a joy to read. Your ability to convey detail in lucid, readable prose is a very rare gift indeed!
On the subject of Passsenger Pigeon’s past occurrence withinthe UK/Ireland, I have heard that the species was both held and bred at Knowsley in the private menagerie of the 13th Earl of Derby. Allegedly so many young were produced that they were simply released into the neighbouring countryside!