I feel awful!!! I moved into a cottage with a wildly overgrown garden . I've had issues with rats and have had to remove a huge pampus grass and butterfly Bush from the front. This week I tackled the bad garden...a massively overgrown cherry tree and elderberry tree. These trees though are home to some lovely birds, and iv ruined their home. I found multiple nests and they even landed and sat on the nests when I stopped for lunch. What can I do ? Will the pigeons settle for a bird box? According to neighbours the pigeons have lived in the trees for a long time, it's actually keeping me up at the thought I've destroyed their home....its wood pigeons I believe and I see blue bits coming and going but the pigeons are residents, we'll were.
Any advice on how to help them adjust to being homeless, I've kept two nests but not sure what to do with them.
Unless I'm misreading, none of the nests had eggs or chicks in. Although there's a chance one had just been built, pigeons in particular are more than capable of just building another one somewhere else. They aren't that fussy where, unlike some other species.
Yes there were no eggs in the nests. So pigeons are pretty robust then?
Yes. They can breed year round. They can also move around, and have a wide ranging diet. e.g. wood pigeons here eat buds, wallflowers, veg crops, seeds, insects and have stripped my young cherry tree of cherries months before they were going to be ready!
They had it made in my garden then with the cherries and Elderberry tree! It's good to know they will manage without their usual spot. I will be making some nooks in the garden where they will be more than welcome.
Yep. They certainly get through a lot of elderberries later in the year! Just like cherries, they don't wait for them to ripen before they start on them.