An amazing bird migration occurred last week, and the whole phenomenom is a bit of a mystery.

The migrating birds were Woodpigeons (Columba palumbus), which may surprise you – who knew Woodpigeons migrated? Even more surprising is the numbers heading south west, estimated to be between 50,000 and 150,000 birds. I saw some of the flocks passing over and they were huge – it is truly an amazing spectacle to witness, and it happens every year, in late October / early November, the timing probably dependant on various weather conditions.

What’s mysterious about this migration is where the birds come from and where they are going. These do not seem to be local British birds, as our population seems either to be mostly stationary or restricts its movements to within the UK, so the current assumption is that these are predominantly Woodpigeons passing through Britain, possibly originating in Scandinavia and likely heading to Spain and Portugal to over-winter.