Common Wood Pigeon

 

       

                                                 Wood Pigeons: left, north Lincolnshire June 10th 2014 (Graham Catley); right, August 2020 south Lincolnshire (Neil Smith).

 

 

One of the top three commonest birds in Lincolnshire, depending how you measure it and almost certainly the most widespread.  Found everywhere, all year round but perhaps less numerous in the fens in winter. The LBC Atlas estimated the breeding population at around 78,000 pairs in the late 1980s. BBS data shows a significant change with a 41% increase in the breeding population during the period 1994-2019. In an analysis of movements during the four-year period from 2012 to 2015 in LBR 2015, movements south at Gibraltar Point occurred between mid-October and mid-November with a maximum of 6160 south on November 8th, 2015. The numbers moving vary considerably from year to year. There is still controversy on the movements and origins of these birds - are they entirely UK birds moving within the UK or are continental birds involved as well ? BTO ringing recoveries show that foreign-ringed birds recovered in the UK originate from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. There are just two recoveries of birds ringed in the county, both shot in France in 1960 and 1971. The longest distance travelled within the UK was a movement of 205 km from Gibraltar Point to Thanet, Kent, in 1996/97.