Pigeons eating lilac leaves!

Misslayed

We've got 5 or 6 wood pigeons sitting in our lilac tree all day, eating the leaves like they're going out of fashion! The lilac is more than 20 years old, and I've never seen this before. Anyone got any idea why they've started doing it? Is something they normally eat in short supply this year? Is it some sort of natural medicine? It's quite amusing to watch, as they're perched right at the top of the tree, on quite small shoots, so swinging all over the place but gripping on for grim death.

Silvertabby

Our wood pigeons have worked out how to eat from the large seed feeder - two of them balance on either side of the small tray and take turns to scoff the sunflower hearts!

Perhaps that's why they have (so far) ignored the lilac tree just a few feet away from the feeding station.

I tried growing dwarf peas in a trough a couple of years ago - but gave up after the woodies ate all of the green shoots.

Misslayed

Ours normally just strut about under our feeders hoovering up the sunflower hearts the little ones drop (which makes them so fat we call them wood ducks).

Silvertabby

Ours normally just strut about under our feeders hoovering up the sunflower hearts the little ones drop (which makes them so fat we call them wood ducks).

I sometimes wonder how ours get off the ground as well !

My late father was a war child, brought up on (wood)pigeon pie and stewed rabbit, so I can just hear him saying that I should catch and eat them! Sorry, dad, but that's not going to happen.