Pine/Fir Cone query

[witham]

We keep finding Pine Cones scattered over a large area when we walk the dogs, there are no fir trees in the immediate area for the wind to have blown off so how do they get there, is a bird responsible, we have loads of Crows, Magpies, Jackdaws, a Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Woodpecker etc, some are where children couldn't have thrown or dropped them so they're out of the equation

[healfdan]

Hello
The lack of response would suggest members are as baffled as you are. Individual cones can be transported by squirrels a few metres from the parent trees but usually cones that are wind blown or detached by squirrels are tackled on site and show feeding signs such as being stripped or nibbled.
Mice, voles and some birds such as woodpeckers will strip the cones for the seed but I cannot see them transporting cones any distance. You say there are no conifers in the area. How about Larch trees which also produce a cone? And a long shot, if the cones are small they could be from the Alder tree which can shed hundreds of small cones.
Healfdan

[witham]

sorry for taking such a long time to reply my ancient computer is very slow at times so a couple of days I've just given up trying to get online etc, yes we have a 'dwarf' pine in our garden which is now about 15 feet tall and a neighborough further away has an old Scotch Pine, they are definitely not Larch cones and are much too far away to have been blown off, we'd not had the grandchildren down when we first noticed them so they're not the culprits and as our garden is rather isolated no one could have picked them. We walk across a 5 acre field adjoining our land which we rent and then go over another to get onto the riverside bike track and the side of the drain where we've also seen some, as I said we have Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies, a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the area, rabbits( oops can't climb trees) and a grey squirrel who visit the garden as well as the usual smaller birds so it could be a number of suspects!!!!!!!!!!!!!