Pigeon nesting in hawthorn tree now?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

I have been planning to trim my hawthorn tree later in September, as it's getting too big for it's boots, however I spied a fat wood pigeon lumbering into the centre with a small stick in its mouth.

I'm assuming it may be making a nest inside - does anyone know if this is likely at this time of year. Any tips for checking if it is actually nesting and wasn't just looking around.

Yes we have some also saw a broken egg shell in the allotment.

We have two nesting wood pigeons too and have gardeners booked for next week which I will cancel.

Argh, how long are they likely to need the tree til? I'm guessing the whole of September is out now?

We had a juvenile woodpigeon, just flown the nest, in our garden in mid October last year, it does seem to get cold later in the year recently so maybe they carry on a bit longer with the babies.

We used to do our hedges and tree trimming in late September but are now leaving it till late October.

It's good of you to care enough to put off the work so the birds can finish nesting, especially as so many people don't give a fuck.

Yep - they'll keep going until it gets too cold. Top props for thinking about it and waiting until they are done.

Having observed some more (while hanging out washing) I can confidently say that there is a pair regularly coming and going so definitely seems to be a nest. I'll wait til winter begins then.

Dc and I looked up pics of baby pigeons - they properly look like dinosaurs or dodos

I believe pigeons are unusual in that they can breed for much more of the year than most birds due to being able to produce 'crop milk' to feed their young.

Dc and I looked up pics of baby pigeons - they properly look like dinosaurs or dodos

Dodos were a big flightless pigeon.

We've started leaving more ground cover in the flower beds too, because when the baby pigeons first leave the nest, they hide in the undergrowth for a couple of days until they can fly, which leaves them vulnerable to cats.

At this point they are pretty much the size of an adult pigeon, but they don't have all the markings yet, so when I first saw the parent with the juvenile I wondered why a pigeon was friends with a bird of another species.

If a cat gets them, even if it doesn't kill them, they will almost certainly die because the cats' saliva contains bacteria which will give them blood poisoning. I didn't realise this last year, when cats got one of the juveniles and the other one was still alive. It didn't look very well but I thought, it's a wild animal, it'll be fine. When the parent flew off at dusk I put the baby in our garage to keep it safe from cats, then let it out again at dawn. What I should have done was get it to the wildlife centre for antibiotics, but by the time I found this out, it was too late and it died as I was trying to get through to the wildlife centre on the phone.

This was last year, when I had finally achieved a tidy garden. I've left it a bit this year and the chicks have places to hide, also better for hedgehogs, frogs, lizards etc.

We have a nesting wood pigeon and at lest one fledgeling right now in our hawthorn hedge.
The pigeon's nest should be quite easy to spot, it's made of twigs about 3mm diameter.

I've peered in and can't see any evidence of a nest but have still seen them in and out. I'll be a bit disappointed now if they were trying my tree for size and have rejected it. There is certainly no lack of ground cover in my garden, tidy it is not

Yes, a wood pigeon has been hopping into our trees with pieces of straw in its beak this week, I was surprised to see it this late in the year.

As already mentioned upthread, wood pigeons nest and breed regularly throughout the year. We have a pair who come and build a nest in a birch tree in our garden. It sometimes takes them a few attempts to get a decent nest going as they're not the most reliable builders. We often find a shower of random sticks and twigs in our garden when the nest build attempt fails, maybe due to flimsy building and a strong wind. But they will try again. This year we also had a magpie pair nesting in the same tree. They tried a few times to convince the wood pigeons that it was now their tree and they weren't allowed to nest in the same tree, but the pigeons were quite persistent and eventually the magpies let them build on the other side of the tree. It's been a rather dramatic breeding season here

You're so sweet OP, you've gone from being mildly put-out that the pigeons might delay your plans to be slightly concerned that your hedge isn't good enough... It's the most British thing I've ever read and I salute you

Rock (ferral) pigeons do nest pretty much all year and the young take 35-40 days to fledge. By the time they fledge the parents are only visiting 4 times a day so it’s very very easy to miss a nest.

I speak from bitter experience. We waited well after nesting was traditionally over at the end of last October but really needed to have a 30ft leylandii removed. Our tree surgeon checked when he gave us the quote and found nothing, to the best of his ability (and he was thorough). He checked again 10 days later before starting the work. Sadly very tucked away at the top of the tree was a nest with two birds not ready to fledge and they only were found as the last section of tree came down.

We sought advice and the tree surgeon took them straight to a wildlife rescue but they didn’t survive.

I sobbed and felt so sick. He was so careful and it still happened. I still feel awful when I think about it now.

Aw, that's very sad. I am only planning a haircut rather than a radical reduction but I will be extra careful when the time comes. It's not a very tall tree and most of the branches are very very thin because it was pollarded a few years ago, so there's only really a couple of places that a pair of porkie wood pigeons could realistically balance a nest. That may be why they've rejected it (if they have).

I'm not overly keen on pigeons in the garden generally - they steal my strawberries, but having seen the bizarre cuteness of the babies I had come round to the idea and was keen on getting the binoculars out and hoping for a glimpse from ds bedroom window which would be at the right height and angle to see the likely nest site. Ah well.

We have a pair of magpies who nest every year in the massive hawthorn at the front of the house. They chase the red kites away squawking loudly and eat bugs from my lawn and flower beds. I know magpies have a bad rep but I've a soft spot for 'my' pair

If it is a nest, you will know pretty soon. They only start to build when the eggs are imminent, just a day or 2 before.

They take around 18 days to hatch IIRC, then 4-6 weeks for the fledglings to leave the nest.

Wood pigeon nests are more like a pile of a few sticks than a "nest" shape nest. You could have missed it.

That's good to know - would they be very regularly in and out once they've laid, make a lot of noise, anything else that will make me know for certain? (I'll prob hold off to be safe but I'd like to know )

I have a baby Dove in a nest in the pear tree and sadly one juvenile pigeon got attacked by an adult pigeon this morning and died of its injuries a few hours later.

I found a fledgling last week. I encouraged it into a hedge. Lots of pigeons with twigs in my garden. I think they are wood pigeons and I read that they nest until November.

IME they will be very quiet while they are sitting on the eggs, the chicks less so! The male and female take it in turns to sit on the eggs so you might see them swap over.

Try not to disturb them as, if they fly off and the eggs get too cold for too long, they will stop developing.

Oh I won't touch the tree, I'll just observe from window or ground level.