pigeons , oh those pigeons

[oldfeller]

the sound was familiar although not one that gets much use.. it was my mobile,the farmer calling wondered if there was anychance of just poping up to the barley field [ yet not harvested] as those pigeons are giving the crop a bashing .

next morning not too early i drove up the lane onto the grass field next to the barley.

opened the gate, not a thing

walked or rather hobbled some 100 yards down the one side , clapped hands,, not a thing.

oh well perhaps a bit early.. it was only 10.30 so about turned to get back to the truck and with that about 80 woodies swirled into the air... they had been hidden down in the barley . oh yippee

back at the truck had to travel very lightly as it was an uphill walk of 200 yards at least to get near the sitty tee , and in the shade.

only sillosox decoys, see through net as base and another realtree one in front, folding seat as supplied by teal. 100 carts and my old faithfull Benelli m2.

setting up the hide was straighforward but the decoys was slightly different as although the barley was laid in parts there were no tramlines so phoned the farmer who came up and he made a small path to the barley and helped put out the dozen sillosox,

although the sun was out it was quite chilly in the shade and the breeze coming from behind didnt help my old bones, good old sweater that i always keep in the truck, along with waterproofs etc came into its own.

Just sat down and thought that this might well be a long wait when a woodie came from behind went down the field ,turned and came back over the decoys.. one down.

they started coming in in ones , twos and triples over the next few hours. Had a marvellous time and when it came to pick up tried to get all those close by as didnt want to cause more damage to the crop that altready done.

didnt make a note of how many cartridges used, probably close to the 50 mark and picked up 31 birds,

some were offered to the farmer, his neighbour, swoped for some really strong cider[ too strong for this chap at least 7 percent and then my old mate Stuy had the rest for decoys for his shoot the next day.

I only normally have ago at the crows but this year there seems to be more woodpigeons about , well on our couple of farms anyway

 

[marsh man]

Well done from one old fella to another one , nice to know you are still up for it and you haven't lost your touch , our barley was cut 3 or 4 weeks ago , it is in the history books now and some it is already next years crop.

[stuy]

Nice report mak, I'll be in touch ,keep at it come to hereford the promised land of honey and pigeon !!

[pigeon controller]

Great report and result, well done.

[oldfeller]

HI Chaps,.

many thanks for the comments.