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Fog on the Rape


pigeon controller
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Friday morning was forcast to be patchy fog so we set out to find a field with shootable rape. After two hours we had not found a single field that was clear, we then had a thought that it was not fog but low cloud and headed to some riverside rape which was clear. This went against all the theories that fog lays in the valley's and on water. We found about one hundred feeding hard and others joining. We talked to the farmers son and he said they had been on it hard over the past few days as they were roosting in the wood on the edge of the farm. We set up with ten birds with no magnet at present to see the reaction of just stand ups on spikes, it was now 11.00 and the birds came straight in with some landing so we knew the set up was right. Then the fog or cloud decided to drift in with the strengthening wind from the south. By 12.00 we were totally covered , we could see the sun above us behind the fog and hear birds wings as they passed over us. We had shot twenty birds and decided to sit it out to see if it would clear. By 13.30 we packed up and put the gear in the disco and had a quick drive around, but it was a total cover up. We decided to walk across the land on the farm that we shot and see if we could shoot any going to roost, it was a long walk and we shot a further ten birds so the total for the day was thirty birds.

 

Saturday was going to be clear, it was not and at 08.00 we set out again it was thick fog/cloud. We drove for about an hour in thick fog but when we dropped off the Birmingham Plateau we found it just to be a thin mist and straight away we found birds flighting and feeding but they were very spooky and as you walked them off they all left , we would watch for twenty minutes and nothing returns. So we hatched a plan to shoot a rape field in the middle of two other rape fields . We were about a half a mile away downwind and the theory was that our shooting would keep them in the air off the other two fields ?? . The only problem with the plan was that the tree we proposed to shoot from is a good ten minutes walk from the Disco with the gear and hopfully with the pigeon coming back. We used DBs lightweight kit, ten birds from the day before, no magnet or battery just spikes and angel frames. The rape around the base of the tree was very sparse and we spread the decoys out to cover more ground, we were finaly set up for 11.30 and had walked about one hundred birds off the field. We poured the coffee and waited the first bird back came straight in and landed with the pattern we spooked it and shot. this lifted the birds out of the trees around the field and we had groups of eight to ten trying to land and as we take it in turns to shoot it is difficult for the none shooter to follow on safely but we did manage it a few times during the day. We would get a single bird in shoot and this would bring others off the other fields in the distance so the plan did work. The birds we shot all went out on spikes and this proved to be a big draw to passing birds going to roost at the end of the day. We packed up at 15.45 and started to pack up the birds and the gear and laid the birds out for the picture . I knew we had shot a few and hoped we had finished the year off with a Ton and was surprised that we had shot one hundred and nineteen pigeons and a jackdaw. It took us four trips back to the Disco but it was worth all the effort for a great result .

 

Can I wish all PW Members and readers a Happy New Year for 2017.

 

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Edited by pigeon controller
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