Andy Austin

The new licences application forms are now available, they look very limiting if you do not have regular places to shoot over as you have to be specific about the land ownership and the conditions under which the control will take place. Looks like the end of invites to organised vermin shoots. I will be making an application for my own land based on crop damage which would be specifically for pigeons but it seems that there is no flexibility for general shooting. I would like to keep the number of Magpies down to limit predation on protected birds but I could not justify it under the terms of the new licences. Any ideas on how to make the most of this change?

I in my area there are plenty of birds but as seems to be the norm during the recent weather they are easily put off feeding. Where I have found them to more consistent with a steady number of ones and twos comming in, is when they need to drink. In two of my locations there are muck heaps which have laid wet with puddles even during the hot weather, it seems to attrach them, if disturbed they fly up to the nearest trees or wires but come back after a while (when I miss!). Andy Austin Long time no post!

Have been out with the Land Rover green laning (around South East Norfolk) today so no shooting but noticed lots of Pigeons everywhere (as you do when you can't shoot them) mostly in twos and threes occasionally more. Like an earlier post says there is such a choice of feeding available there does not seem to be a single crop attracting them. They seem to like power cables with some sitting on the wires and some feeding on the crop beneth. I have notice this on the fields we shoot, the pigeons are attracted to them. As we were driving along I did a rough count and the most common birds visible were pigeons. As for the rest of the day we drove the wrong side of a hedge across some sugar beet (another good way to wind up land owners is to rain shot on them!). No we stopped pleaded our case, well he had blocked the County road, settled for damages and free passage back to the paved road. Later the the lead vehical got tired and laid down in a six foot deep ditch to rest, so we finshed the day spending a couple of hours sitting it up and pulling it out. Happy Days in the Feild! Andy Austin

Just to put a sientific view on the subject! The following is a little write up which may inprove our vision. Looks like pigeons see the forth dimension (in colour). The references to reds may explain why the orange is not seen by pigeons as a threat, possibly it blends into the greens under uv. Possibly sunlight levels could make a differnce as to how and which spectrum they see and hence colour. Also they coould see some infrared, thermal imaging pigeons? is that why bale hides work better than camo netting? Colour Vision in Birds Bird colour vision differs from that of humans in two main ways. First, birds can see ultraviolet light. It appears that UV vision is a general property of diurnal birds, having been found in over 35 species using a combination of microspectrophotometry, electrophysiology, and behavioural methods. So, are birds like bees? Bees, like humans, have three receptor types, although unlike humans they are sensitive to ultraviolet light, with loss of sensitivity at the red end of the spectrum. This spectral range is achieved by having a cone type that is sensitive to UV wavelengths, and two that are sensitive to "human visible" wavelengths. Remember, because 'colour' is the result of differences in output of receptor types, this means that bees do not simply see additional 'UV colours', they will perceive even human-visible spectra in different hues to those which humans experience. Fortunately, as any nature film crew knows, we can gain an insight to the bee colour world by converting the blue, red and green channels of a video camera into UV, blue and green channels. Bees are trichromatic, like humans, so the three dimensions of bee colour can be mapped onto the three dimensions of human colour. With birds, and indeed many other non-mammalian vertebrates, life is not so simple. As well as seeing very well in the ultraviolet, all bird species that have been studied have at least four types of cone. They have four, not three, dimensional colour vision. Recent studies have confirmed tetra-chromacy in some fish and turtles, so perhaps we should not be surprised about this. It is mammals, including humans, that have poor colour vision! Whilst UV reception increases the range of wavelengths over which birds can see, increased dimensionality produces a qualitative change in the nature of colour perception that probably cannot be translated into human experience. Bird colours are not simply refinements of the hues that humans, or bees, see, these are hues unknown to any trichromat. Andy Austin

Have been out at various times of the day during the past week. with the long day they are about around first light and then again from later in the morning right through to dusk. But only comming into the decoys in ones with the occasional pair. Looks like they are spoilt for choice around our way doing peas, sugarbeet, lettice, clover on short grazing. rape and more. They move on very quickly to other feeding grounds if disturbed. I have found a copy of the Arthur coats 'Pigeon Shooting' whilst some of the info is well past its' best by date' the sections on habit, tactics, Hides and decoys has put us right and drastically improved the amount of shots, pity a lot still manage to fly away intact . (younger son now getting 2 birds in 3 shots he's a lot quicker than me!). Andy Austin

Spent a day going to the National Shooting Show at Bisley hopping to see a lot of field equipment, shotguns, ammunition etc.but but found it a bit disappointing. Airgunners had a resonanble showing of exhibitors and a couple of usefull dealers there but overall I did not thinhk it was worth the journey, or the £10 a head to get into the main exhibition hall. Which is the best show to actually see and touch whats on the market? Andy Austin

Sorry Farma Take it as your last word on the subject but just to confirm by clearing I ment shooting / disposing of rabbits with mixi. Normally would have left them alone till later in the year. Currently only one location with it, overgrown areas around the main yard, others look ok elsewhere. Andy Austin

Sam They seem to be breeding March to Nov round here with potentially 2-3 broods per year and spring birds breeding later in the same year, mild winters and plently of winter food crops so no shortage my area. Given their vermin status no reason for a closed season here. However we are only shooting over crops where they tend to do most damage at the moment. Possibly there is a need to lay off in some areas to maintain reasonable numbers and keep the sport intresting. I do not like shooting rabbits and hares, April through Aug as it was 'not the season' and 'just not done son!'. However we have been clearing rabbits with mixy, I think it helps to keep the rest healther.

Thanks for the replies although I need some help with Neils'. Have been back to the field with the farmer and agreed to a bail hide shooting away from the road and foot path on the open east side for early morning (sun behind us and I will set up a netting hide facing south (foot (path behind us) at the clay pit which we recon will work better in the afternoon and evening. We will work it along the lines of Cranfields post and not shoot if anyone is near us on the path. Will be shooting mostly in the weekdays at various times through the day. One other suggestion I've had is to put up some signs to warn footpath users of the possibilty of sudden noise from shooting. Thanks Andy Austin

Hello Forum! New as I am to shooting etc. etc. I hope you experienced shooters can give me some pointers on how shooting things should be done. Last year I was invited to shoot pigeons on a farm near me, the farmer grows peas and had major problems with pigeons. My sons were keen on having a go at them as prviously they had only shot on skeet ranges. The land with the peas on was open and well away from houses roads and paths so safety of others was not a major problem. Despite lots of 'shooting at pigeons' (rather than actually hitting them) the farmer has invited us back but to a new location. I have been to the field which is still to be drilled, it is around 30 acres, trees on three sides, with an old overgrown clay pit like an island to one side, my concern is there is a footpath along two sides next to a small wood which appears to be the area favoured by the birds. I have watched them over the past week and they roost in the taller trees. I am thinking of setting up the hide in the clay pit where we can cover a large area of the field away from the footpath. The wood will be about fifty yards across open field behind us with the footpath to its edge. I have tried out this location for a couple of evenings and take shoots at bird comming into roost. The shoots being taken directly away from the footpath. My concern once set up for a long session is people on the foot path am I too close despite shooting directly away from it? any advice on the location? Andy Austin