Christine's walking & birds blog

Visible migration

I glanced out of the window just before seven o'clock this morning to see a large flock of wood pigeons flying south. I grabbed the bins and went outside, oblivious to the fact that I was still in my pyjamas.

In the next twenty minutes, wave upon wave of pigeons flew over high, heading south. Many dropped down onto tree-tops on the estate, although these were gone half an hour later.

I gave up trying to count in hundreds - in fact I gave up trying to count at all. But I'm confident that at least two thousand birds went over Taplow this morning.

I'm not a great fan of wood pigeons, but this was a real spectacle. Something about the sheer numbers of birds and their high, steady flight across the pinkening sky, made the whole experience as moving as it would have been had they been wild swans or geese.