* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
With climate change and milder winters, when this time of year arrives, there is a veritable invasion of wood pigeons. More and more arrive to the Iberian Peninsula.
The truth is that, in the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona, where I have captured these photographs for La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos, they are there all year round. They are very pretty and do their thing, like eating chickpeas from the garden.
"The wood pigeon occupies a wide variety of environments (forest, agricultural, urban), with the highest densities in holm oak and cork oak forests," details the Spanish Society of Ornithology, SEOBirdLife.
"In winter, the Iberian resident population is reinforced by a contingent of millions of wood pigeons from central and northern Europe," they point out.
On their trip to Spain they look for alternative routes to protect themselves along the Pyrenees in the areas less affected by head winds and, in addition, they try to avoid the increasingly numerous wind farms.
According to statistics released by the Palomeando.es Migration Panel, more than a million pigeons had already entered France through Germany and Switzerland and were continuing to advance further south, towards Spain. towards our border.
To give us an idea, on the morning of November 8 alone, 108,000 wood pigeons were counted crossing the Spanish border on their migratory flight. At this point in autumn there are already 178,800.
The wood pigeon exhibits a powerful, fast, direct flight with strong wing beats, in which its white transverse bands stand out.
We can also recognize it by its song, which is very characteristic. Its cooing, low and powerful, is generally made up of two or three series of five syllables (gu-guu-gu, gu-gu).
