kitchrat

Just about 30 miles N (and a little bit West) of Aberdeen

Members 1.1k From:An Essex ditch Author Posted 4 hours ago (edited) So it COULD matter then? The reason I ask is that I've just got back from a commercial goose shoot in Jockland. The weather was very warm and there was loads of food around for the geese so they weren't that hungry. Well, the guide had two groups of decoys, on one side were a load of Greylag silhouettes, on the other side were a couple of hundred Silosock Whitefront decoys. The Pinkfoots were supposed to want to land in the gap between. It seemed to me that nearly all the skeins that approached with an intent to land went for the Whitefront side but often they pulled back just in time (for them) I saw that the decoys had a white stripe down the side, which the geese didn't have. Also, the wind made them look a little "regimented". Just wondered if that or the stripe might have warned them off? All the Guns were very well hidden and not looking over the top of the hide! Incidentally, enough geese decoyed well enough for a decent amount of shooting, so this isn't a complaint, just me overthinking again! Edited 3 hours ago by kitchrat

This should have been in wildfowling but can back here when I edited it!

So it COULD matter then? The reason I ask is that I've just got back from a commercial goose shoot in Jockland. The weather was very warm and there was loads of food around for the geese so they weren't that hungry. Well, the guide had two groups of decoys, on one side were a load of Greylag silhouettes, on the other side were a couple of hundred Silosock Whitefront decoys. The Pinkfoots were supposed to want to land in the gap between. It seemed to me that nearly all the skeins that approached with an intent to land went for the Whitefront side but often they pulled back just in time (for them) I saw that the decoys had a white stripe down the side, which the geese didn't have. Also, the wind made them look a little "regimented". Just wondered if that or the stripe might have warned them off? All the Guns were very well hidden and not looking over the top of the hide! Incidentally, enough geese decoyed well enough for a decent amount of shooting, so this isn't a complaint, just me overthinking again!

Oh, that came from a reply to one of my earlier posts. However, I have heard it said but I'm not convinced now... They love them round here, to protect rape. They are super loud, almost military grade but "are very expensive". Sadly, they do work!

No I actually heard and saw the rockets. Then it was his tractor driver who told me what was being "protected" when we were beating together elsewhere. The farm in question used to be OK but as the son grew up they kept the shooting for themselves. I never bother to ask these days. However you do get come "porkies", like, "I have a shooter and he's coming tomorrow." You check tomorrow and all you can see is pigeons!

As I know nothing about this, I just wondered if geese are not so happy to come to decoys of a different species, ie will Canadas come to whitefront decoys etc? I expect that anything will do if they are hungry enough but what if they are not anyway near starving? Cheers, JK

Is this better at shooting, better at writing posts or better at stirring comments?

As part 2 of this, a farm near me is firing rockets to keep pigeons off a newly-drilled field of wheat. Now tell me the grain on the surface is not worth protecting!

I wish!

👍

Friday clashes with another pigeon-rich shoot I'm afraid. 30th looks good!

In my previous "record-breaking" post (4 pages of mixed comments!) B686 quoted a farmer as saying "He says they are only feeding on the grain on the surface and aren’t doing any damage". Well during my "chasing them about" phase, I caught up with about 400 pigeons on drilled wheat. However, it had been drilled over two weeks before and had germinated, the shoots were an inch plus high. I stepped out of the truck and all pigeons left. I checked the field and there was lots of grain on top. It too had germinated and its little roots were diving into the loose soil below - it hadn't been rolled. So, I thought, what if there were no pigeons in Essex, would a good proportion of the spilled grains not make it to adulthood and boost the yield? In another week or two the plants would be well established. NB NO pigeons returned in 30 minutes. Then I thought about the grain which gets through the combine. It germinates and produces green tracks up and down the field. This is supposed to be sub-sized grains that get blown through but they still make good, until sprayed off. If left, I'm sure you would get some yield next year, at least enough to attract pigeons! And that is on top of fairly compacted soil. So, is this " He says they are only feeding on the grain on the surface and aren’t doing any damage " just another myth, like "pigeons have to eat every day", " they won't feed on rape that has frost on it", or "Geese taste of fish or mud"? Just overthinking! Cheers!

Right, time to report on my trials and tribulations. There is some frustration involved but maybe not the sort you might expect..... I have described the flocks I've seen, much as “old'un” had photographed but my tormentors were jumping, en masse, not just from field to field but from farm to farm, over a 5 mile radius. On Saturday afternoon (yet another grey misty day) I had a text from the farmer to say they were all over his fields down the road away from the game shoot. (drilled beans and wheat) I had already seen them a short time earlier but on the adjoining farm and they were up and down like a Yo Yo, not settled at all. Anyway, Sunday was Remembrance Sunday so I had to lay off but did go scouting. 11.00am, nothing to be seen but about 12.00, lots of birds arrived, from all directions. I have shot these fields twice as stubble, with good results, so am getting excited! However, Monday is a beating day for this farmer, also actual Remembrance Day and there is a church at the bottom so I have to beat. Monday dawns clear and sunny, so I suspect a change in the weather = a change in feeding time. I divert myself past these fields on the way to beating. 8.15am, it's covered in pigeons! If I had £1 for everyone at the shoot who told me about them, I could buy the farm! Still, Tuesday it has to be, so an early start to get there 1st. Leave house at 7.00am. Have to park in a gateway 200yds downhill from the only way I could access a safe place to shoot, wind (such as there was) in the right direction and not going to upset anyone or scare walkers on the footpath. Load up my trolley, rucksack etc. drag it all up the hill, facing into the rush hour traffic, through the ditch, up the bank and across 150 yards of very rough field (not been rolled). The hip that needs a new bearing gave me grief but it has to be done. Set up in the nettles round a power pole, the only safe cover. (nettles are not dead I can assure you, hands still stinging!) Wind should bring the birds up the field towards the decoys, right in front of me! A large flock arrive, high, and keep going, never looked,not a good sign. 1st bird has not read his flying manual and appears from behind, down wind, doesn't like what he sees and swirls away but I manage to down him anyway (back trigger, tighter choke). Next one arrives, also from behind doesn't like it, swirls up towards the power cables, I wait, clean miss but the “dead” bird wakes up and starts to leg it. I leg it after him, cue arrival of a flock of 100 birds! Damn it, scared them all. Stock Doves get mixed into the equation, adding to the confusion. For the next half hour it's quite busy, a mix of single/pairs and big groups. They don't really want it, often swirling away at the last minute. I make all the schoolboy errors: Looking the wrong way as a lone bird lands quietly in the decoys, only to see him fly away. Watching a lone bird approach and flare away, shoot and miss, only to see a big flock coming up the field exactly as planned. Pick on one bird in a big flock, he flares off early and I am surrounded by pigeons going in all directions about 10 yards away, miss them all! (I'm too slow) Shoot one which falls 200 yards away and pulls all the incomers (they really wanted the open spaces as “old 'un” noted.) Go to get it just as 100 arrive! Shoot a bird that lands upside down and scares two flocks before you realise. Leave a perfectly decoying pigeon unshot because it's mixed up with doves and not identified soon enough. Lose confidence and get FOM, fear of missing. Miss the sitting targets that should boost your confidence. The wind gets up a bit, which helps direct the flow but lets them flare quicker. Now it's a bit quieter, odd 1s and 2s to catch you unawares, plus the odd big, wary flock. My shooting doesn't improve much but they decoy better now I have real birds out. I keep plugging away and did manage to hit some! The trickle finally dried up so I quit. A sparrow hawk has stolen one from way down the field, several have made it to hedges (that I can't search) before collapsing but I still pick up 88!! Takes me 3 painful trips to cart the fallen off the field but it's my fault for been too successful! No, I'm not complaining, just disappointed in my shooting. But, if I'd been on form it would have been 4 trips to cart them off! Resting up now, before beating Friday and Saturday. Cheers, Kitchrat

WOW, thank's old 'un, fame and fortune at last!! Sorry about your frustration, the pictures made me feel for you. I have a report on my trials and tribulations to compose tomorrow, a couple of cans of Old Speckled Hen calls tonight. Cheers all!