On 2013-06-03 15:52:28 +0100, David Hill said:

On 03/06/2013 15:00, Sacha wrote:
On 2013-06-02 20:16:55 +0100, Peter James said:

Sacha wrote:

Does anyone know why wood pigeons lie down in the grass on our lawn?
We've seen several of them do it but can't say we've noticed it
particularly before this year. It doesn't seem to matter whether the
grass has just been cut or not, nor whether it's rained or is dry.
They're alone when they do it and often remain stationary for several
minutes. We haven't noticed that the collared doves do it, only the
wood pigeons, it seems.
According to the expert on uk.rec.birdwatching some birds do sunbathe.

His answer to my question as to whether they do sunbathe was:

"Yes. A paper in British Birds in 1969 on sunbathing in birds listed
over 170 species of 48 families across the world, with a couple of dozen
species in the pigeon/dove family, including Woodpigeon."

So we can only assume that in the absence of any ants, they must have
been sunbathing.

Peter

Sounds very much like it. It's so strange we haven't seen it before though!

Don't you think that after a time on a nest of just twigs, a chance to
lie down on some nice soft grass would be good?

;-)) Must be particularly hard twigs this year then!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk