March 22nd 2014

Woodpigeons have a bad press; numbers increasing to the point where they are a major pest to the agricultural sector. But I like woodpigeons. As a boy I remember finding a ramshackled nest in an alder tree alongside a river in Northumberland and there within 2 ivory white eggs, stone cold but unmarked. The nest itself seemed not much more than a fall of twigs from the branches above caught in a fork but a nest it was. ever since then the coo of a pigeon has reminded me of that day. So it was a thrill to notice Mrs Woodpigeon has started to sit on eggs in the silver birch at the bottom of our garden. So a lean out the bedroom window and take a photograph moment followed. Later in the day the wind picked up and the tree was swaying well, which reminds me, if I needed reminding, how vulnerable nests and eggs are at this time, the incubating female too. A huge investment to keep the next generation safe.