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wood pidgeon life span
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message . net... "Alan Holmes" wrote in message ... "BAC" wrote in message ... "Malcolm" wrote in message ... In article ews.net, Sue writes "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. But that doesn't seem to agree with Nick's suggestion that an increase in population would lead to an increase in mortality and a reduction in life expectancy which would bring the population back down again. No, it doesn't, but I don't think Nick is the only person to think what he thinks about the subject. I have seen it suggested elsewhere that the farming community came to believe that the traditional autumn culls of wood pigeons actually increased the numbers surviving the winter to breed the following spring. If so, that might explain Sacha's observation that the wood pigeon shoots have been reduced, although not, as you say, her subsequent observation this has led to an increase in the wood pigeon population :-) What's wrong with woodpigeons in gardens, anyway? The mess and the reduction of other wildlife. Woodpigeons don't reduce other wildlife. They don't predate on any bird, insect, amphibion or mammal. In my experience they don't cause any mess either. But they do destroy my vegetables! |
#2
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wood pidgeon life span
"Alan Holmes" wrote in message ... What's wrong with woodpigeons in gardens, anyway? The mess and the reduction of other wildlife. Woodpigeons don't reduce other wildlife. They don't predate on any bird, insect, amphibion or mammal. In my experience they don't cause any mess either. But they do destroy my vegetables! I don't dispute that but cabbages don't usually come under the heading of wildlife, even the most violent kind. |
#3
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wood pidgeon life span
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message . net... "Alan Holmes" wrote in message ... What's wrong with woodpigeons in gardens, anyway? The mess and the reduction of other wildlife. Woodpigeons don't reduce other wildlife. They don't predate on any bird, insect, amphibion or mammal. In my experience they don't cause any mess either. But they do destroy my vegetables! I don't dispute that but cabbages don't usually come under the heading of wildlife, even the most violent kind. But I do find some excrecia(SP?) in places, and it is quite possible it comes from the pigeons. Alan |
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