Mary - I have never had a Wood Pigeon come down the chimney but did receive a visit from a Jackdaw and a Starling on separate occasions. Unlike you, I forgot to open the windows before removing the fireplace cover and trying to catch them. The Starling escaped and proceeded to dash around the room, landing on the curtain rail, the chair tops and the cupboards, scattering soot everywhere! The pigeon may have spread its wings in a defence posture; sometimes also they raise them as a sign of aggression. All pigeons and doves have very loose body feathers, something the local sparrows appear to well aware of. On three occasions in the past few years I have seen a sparrow in hot pursuit of a Collared Dove, eventually coming up below it and snatching a beak-ful of feathers from its belly! It presumably wanted them to line its nest with.
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The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more