Woodpigeon - 1994
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 5:30PM Breeding resident
Mathew (1984) and Lockley et al. (1949) considered the Woodpigeon to be a common resident, most numerous in the wooded north of the county.
Today they breed throughout Pembrokeshire including the islands of Caldey, Skomer and probably Ramsey. Nesting in trees, they are fairly sparsely distributed in open country but more numerous in wooded areas, particularly the conifer plantations. On Skomer, which they colonised in 1970, nests are placed in low brambles and on the ground among bracken, with numbers building up to 30 pairs by 1976 but dropping to an average of 12 pairs in the 1980s. Allowing for the extent of wooded versus open terrain, an average density of 25 pairs per tetrad would suggest a total Pembrokeshire breeding population of about 10,000 pairs.
The extent to which they flock in the winter varies. They usually form groups of just 20 to 50 birds, but sometimes larger flocks are seen, the largest recorded being of 1,700 at Angle Bay on 14 February 1975.
Pembrokeshire birds are probably sedentary, although a few large scale movements have been recorded, such as 4,000 passing over Marloes on 7 December 1986, and they are occasionally seen on the remote islands of Grassholm and the Smalls. However, British Woodpigeons reached Ireland in 1959, a year of exceptional movement (Murton 1965), and one ringed in County Wexford, Ireland, on 13 April 1960 was shot near Carew on 22 September 1960.
Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads)
Red = breeding confirmed = 174
Orange = breeding probable = 170
Yellow = breeding possible = 75
Total tetrads in which registered = 419 (87.7%)
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