Last Friday morning, one of the autumn’s massive flocks of migrating Woodpigeons passed over my house, and what an incredible sight it was as they headed south along the coast. There were, perhaps, several thousand birds in the flock, which seemed an enormous number to me but, the very next day, there was a report on social media from a birder who’d had his second highest ever count on the Severn of 242,160 Woodpigeons, viewed from the sea wall at Goldcliff.

Despite the enormous quantities of birds that participate in these autumn migrations, they are something of a mystery in the bird world. No one truly knows where the birds originate from or where they’re going. Even expert birders have different theories; last week I read the blog of a well known ornithologist (Pigeons move in mysterious ways) who suggested ‘They may be Scandinavian birds heading for the Cork Oak forests of Iberia, as there is good evidence of migration from ringed birds but perhaps their visits through southern Britain are so rapid that no rings are recovered.’ But another birder, who seems to have a very good understanding of the autumn migration of most species of birds (see this presentation on YouTube: An Introduction to Visible Migration – Dan Webb), commented on the blog, writing that the Woodpigeons are

Almost certainly not Scandinavian birds. Most likely to be British birds moving to the Continent and south western Britain in search of acorns and mast backed up by observers recording departing flocks from Start Point in Devon and further evidenced by a spring return passage along the English side of the Severn in early spring. Scandinavian woodpigeon movement through the Continent peaks several weeks before ours.

Some, perhaps 100, of the Woodpigeons that flew over my house stopped off briefly in the local trees, until the local crows made a fuss and sent them packing.

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.