Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
Hi
My wife wants to know how long do they live and how often they mate and rear their chicks each year TIA |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message ... As to how often they mate; IME (from keeping them), males think of little else but sex, all year round. That's not just pigeons though ... Mary Janet. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message ... The message from "DB01" contains these words: Hi My wife wants to know how long do they live and how often they mate and rear their chicks each year Most pigeons lay only two eggs at a time, which produce one male and one female chick. Because the chicks are fed on regurgitated parental stomach contents (called "pigeon milk") they mature incredibly fast and the parents can lay a new brood of 2 every 6 weeks. This is why doocots used to be a very popular source of all-year meat. As to how often they mate; IME (from keeping them), males think of little else but sex, all year round. Don't we all!(:-) Alan Janet. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message ... The message from "DB01" contains these words: Hi My wife wants to know how long do they live and how often they mate and rear their chicks each year Most pigeons lay only two eggs at a time, which produce one male and one female chick. Because the chicks are fed on regurgitated parental stomach contents (called "pigeon milk") they mature incredibly fast and the parents can lay a new brood of 2 every 6 weeks. This is why doocots used to be a very popular source of all-year meat. As to how often they mate; IME (from keeping them), males think of little else but sex, all year round. Janet. Many thanx Janet We started feeding birds last year, mainly sparrows, blue tits, robins etc. This year a pair of wood pidgeons have built a nest in one tree. Should we encourage the pidgeons or will they drive all the small birds away eugene |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"DB01" wrote in message ... We started feeding birds last year, mainly sparrows, blue tits, robins etc. This year a pair of wood pidgeons have built a nest in one tree. Should we encourage the pidgeons or will they drive all the small birds away No, they're vegetarians. We have several varieties of small birds as well as collar doves and wood pigeons nesting in out tree - the only suitable one for some distance. The only birds we discourage are magpies, I've seen them take fledgling collar doves. Wood pigeons are beautiful creatures and they feel happily on the ground with our bantams, sparrows, dunnocks, robins and blackbirds. The tits don't feed from the ground but they're safe from pigeons of all kinds too. It's difficult to discourage them in any case :-) Mary |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message . net... "DB01" wrote in message ... We started feeding birds last year, mainly sparrows, blue tits, robins etc. This year a pair of wood pidgeons have built a nest in one tree. Should we encourage the pidgeons or will they drive all the small birds away No, they're vegetarians. We have several varieties of small birds as well as collar doves and wood pigeons nesting in out tree - the only suitable one for some distance. The only birds we discourage are magpies, I've seen them take fledgling collar doves. Wood pigeons are beautiful creatures and they feel happily on the ground with our bantams, sparrows, dunnocks, robins and blackbirds. The tits don't feed from the ground but they're safe from pigeons of all kinds too. It's difficult to discourage them in any case :-) Mary Many thanx Mary you have put our minds at rest How do you discourage the magpies? We do get a couple trying to enter the ivy covered poplar that all the small birds live |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
On 3/8/06 10:58, in article ,
"DB01" wrote: "Mary Fisher" wrote in message . net... "DB01" wrote in message ... We started feeding birds last year, mainly sparrows, blue tits, robins etc. This year a pair of wood pidgeons have built a nest in one tree. Should we encourage the pidgeons or will they drive all the small birds away No, they're vegetarians. We have several varieties of small birds as well as collar doves and wood pigeons nesting in out tree - the only suitable one for some distance. The only birds we discourage are magpies, I've seen them take fledgling collar doves. Wood pigeons are beautiful creatures and they feel happily on the ground with our bantams, sparrows, dunnocks, robins and blackbirds. The tits don't feed from the ground but they're safe from pigeons of all kinds too. It's difficult to discourage them in any case :-) Mary Many thanx Mary you have put our minds at rest How do you discourage the magpies? We do get a couple trying to enter the ivy covered poplar that all the small birds live They're a pest and a pain, handsome though they are. The old country people used to inject an egg with poison and put it into nests the magpies were plundering - or shoot them, I'm afraid. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (email address on website) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"DB01" wrote in message news:XMjAg.66404 How do you discourage the magpies? We do get a couple trying to enter the ivy covered poplar that all the small birds live It's VERY difficult. AKA I don't know. When some were building at the top of our VERY high tree Spouse got a very long ladder and dismantled the nest. It was built on a hard mud base with intertwined long twigs and WIRE! I couldn't believe the amount and size of the lengths of thick gauge wire - as well as wire border fencing and wall ties. I took a picture but I can't find it now. We were very concerned because we had a broody sitting on eggs and her chicks would have been vulnerable, as well as the wild birds. Spouse wants an air rifle for next year :-( Mary |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
On 3/8/06 11:59, in article
, "Mary Fisher" wrote: "DB01" wrote in message news:XMjAg.66404 How do you discourage the magpies? We do get a couple trying to enter the ivy covered poplar that all the small birds live It's VERY difficult. AKA I don't know. When some were building at the top of our VERY high tree Spouse got a very long ladder and dismantled the nest. It was built on a hard mud base with intertwined long twigs and WIRE! I couldn't believe the amount and size of the lengths of thick gauge wire - as well as wire border fencing and wall ties. I took a picture but I can't find it now. We were very concerned because we had a broody sitting on eggs and her chicks would have been vulnerable, as well as the wild birds. Spouse wants an air rifle for next year :-( I'm sorry to say that I think he's right. We had a very few magpies coming into the garden which were 'despatched' and we haven't had any this year, x fingers and we have seen an increase in thrush babies around the place. The magpies seem to have a favourite spot about 2 miles from here, in open country, where they nest but I suppose that if their numbers increase, they're bound to have to search for wider areas to occupy. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (email address on website) |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Reginald" wrote in message ... Not long in my garden. OK tell me where you live and I'll tell my birds not to go there )) |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Malcolm" wrote in message ... In article , DB01 writes Hi My wife wants to know how long do they live and how often they mate and rear their chicks each year No-one seems to have answered your first point. Only about a quarter of the chicks born in a summer will survive the winter to breed in their first year. Then, roughly one-third will die each year thereafter. This means that the expected life-span once the bird has become an adult is only 3-4 years. However, ringing has shown that individuals can live much longer than that, the record being about 16 years. If the birds weren't shot, the mortality would go down and their life-expectancy up. Janet responded with information about "pigeons" rather than Woodpigeons, by which I assume she means domesticated birds, descended from Rock Doves. They are much more fecund than Woodpigeons which can, in theory, manage to breed three times in a year, but this is rare, most have two clutches and even then only a small proportion rear young from both broods. Predation and shooting are the main causes of loss. The Woodpigeon breeding cycle takes longer than Janet said, too, being about 7-10 weeks, made up of 2-12 days to build the nest, 3 days to lay two eggs, 17 days incubation and 20-34 days for the young to fledge, plus at least another week before they are independent of their parents. The very variable fledging period is thought to be related to disturbance which can see the young leave quite prematurely. -- Malcolm Wow and thanx I'm impressed with your depth of knowledge. My wife and I have just seen two fledglings come out of their nest and be fed by one of its parents. then lots of wing flapping. Since I built a conservatory for my wife to sit in, she now watches the wild life more that the TV. I've bought books but when you need an answer to a specific point its a lot easier to use this NG Thanks to all who responded to my questions Eugene |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
In article , Malcolm writes: | | If the birds weren't shot, the mortality would go down and their | life-expectancy up. That is extremely unclear, and might be the converse of the truth. It will depend very much on how close they are to overpopulation at the stressful times of year. It is quite possible that stopping shooting them would cause an increase in their population, and a consequent increase in their mortality rate and a reduction in their life expectancy. That is what often happens to prey species with effectively no predation - as is the case for wood pigeons in many parts of the UK. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ... In article , Malcolm writes: | | If the birds weren't shot, the mortality would go down and their | life-expectancy up. That is extremely unclear, and might be the converse of the truth. It will depend very much on how close they are to overpopulation at the stressful times of year. It is quite possible that stopping shooting them would cause an increase in their population, and a consequent increase in their mortality rate and a reduction in their life expectancy. That is what often happens to prey species with effectively no predation - as is the case for wood pigeons in many parts of the UK. Are you saying that, for a given ecosystem, only a certain maximum number of a population of birds can be expected to survive the winter, regardless of how many more than that number started the winter? |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
In article , "BAC" writes: | | Are you saying that, for a given ecosystem, only a certain maximum number of | a population of birds can be expected to survive the winter, regardless of | how many more than that number started the winter? There are circumstances under which that is the case. It is true for red deer in many parts of the Highlands. I cannot say whether or not it is true for wood pigeons in the UK. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
wood pidgeon life span
"Nick Maclaren" wrote Malcolm writes: | | If the birds weren't shot, the mortality would go down and their | life-expectancy up. That is extremely unclear, and might be the converse of the truth. It will depend very much on how close they are to overpopulation at the stressful times of year. It is quite possible that stopping shooting them would cause an increase in their population, and a consequent increase in their mortality rate and a reduction in their life expectancy. That is what often happens to prey species with effectively no predation - as is the case for wood pigeons in many parts of the UK. That's the general feeling round here in Norfolk. A couple of decades back the farmers would have regular organised county-wide woodpigeon shooting days. That doesn't seem to happen now, and we do have many more pigeons around. You sometimes see vast flocks of them feeding in fields, and there are definitely more making a nuisance of themselves in our garden than there used to be when we moved here in 1980. -- Sue |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Life Span of a Norfolk Pine | Gardening | |||
Life span of bamboo? | United Kingdom | |||
Bamboo, life span of UK harvested,,? | United Kingdom | |||
Do rose bushes have a life-span? | Roses | |||
Do rose bushes have a life-span? | Roses |