kitchrat

Not many berries left round here but a few birds on them as described above. Nothing like the numbers on "my" fields. Agreed, some are filling up on pheasant food but I have not seen a full crop this year. Most near empty. Incidentally, the birds round my fields are now (3.00pm) just sitting in the trees, not bothering to feed at all. They must have had about 6 or 7 little feeding sessions of a few minutes each. Not enough time to load up on rape. When they are hungry they stuff themselves all day until their crops are bursting, which they often do when they hit the deck! Using the bino's I cannot see any bulging crops in the parked-up birds Sorry Motty, we have to disagree again, they are not hungry (not around here anyway).

With the belated arrival of "winter", I have just spent a morning watching pigeons on a local farm, a nice little block of OSR, a number of birds (250??) using it on a fairly regular basis but with no committment. There are 12 or 15 nice sitty trees around. After a few days of frost and a tad of snow, I'm hoping things will be decoyable..... BUT - soon after 1st light some birds arrive (at least they have been off to a roosting wood rather than spending the night in the sitty trees). They take up position in a couple or three of the trees and the rest of the flock strings along, now maybe 400 strong. When the trees are full and 10 minutes have passsed, one brave bird drops onto the osr and the rest string down. After a few minutes (10?) they all jump up and head back to the distant place of safety. Could have been a distant gas gun or distant dog walker but I couldn't tell why they left. After 20 minutes or so, some birds return take up position in a different couple of the trees and the rest of the flock strings along. When the trees are full and 10 minutes have passsed, one brave bird drops onto the osr (different field/place to last time) and the rest string down. After a few minutes (10?) they all jump up and head back to the distant place of safety. After 20 minutes or so, repeat above steps. After 20 minutes or so, repeat above steps, but this time they drop onto the wrong field, it's beans, 4 ins high, snow covering any weeds growing so there is NOTHING for them there. It takes 5 minutes before they notice and hop over the hedge onto the osr, then after a few minutes (10?) they all jump up and head back to the distant place of safety. At no time did any birds (except the late arrivals) drop directly onto the crop, always into the trees, wait, then down, briefly. So, I deduce they are not hungry yet, in spite of the colder weather and are just eating for a snack here and there or just because "it's the thing to do"! On Friday I was standing with a Young Gun on a game shoot, 10 pigeons were downed, all had nearly empty crops but were plump and healthy. They had been resting in the woods. I shot a few last week, they had yellow fat round the breasts. What has happened to the "good old days" when hungry pigeons got so stuffed with osr they could hardly fly, you could see the crops bulging as they went to roost but you could still decoy them because they wanted "just one more mouthfull"?? At least we had a chance then.... Do you think that decoys and a magnet and flapper might help direct the 1st arrivals into a tree near a hide containing my good self? The trees are too big to get lofted birds into them. I think it might work once or twice then it would taper off and I'd be lucky to make double figures, if I shot well. However, I do feel that going for L&R's scares incoming birds more than single shots and would reduce my chances later. I note that some gas guns are firing rapid doubles..... Any ideas??

Yes indeed! I've done it myself. Sitting in a ditch beats the **** out of Xmas TV!!

Try telling that to a keeper (true though it is). In fact you can be useful by stopping the pheasants from wandering.. Agree 100%

Yes DO get it in in very good time! Once, many moons ago, I applied in good time and they faffed about for weeks, until I got a call to say they were coming to do the inspection. What I failed to notice was that the date given was a week after my old one expired. SO, they turn up, Dad makes them a cup of tea and we go to see the cabinet - Lo and behold, there is a gun in there, so they caution me and take the gun away. Three weeks later, they call me to say my new cert is ready and I can come and pick my gun up. This time, I have a new problem. My cert expires in October but I will be overseas from March until November. What do I do now??

Same sort of thing here. It's so warm that, although they are on rape, their heart isn't in it. They are not really hungry and it's a sort of "take it or leave it" situation. The rape is tall and healthy. As soon as a farmer sees more than 20 birds landing in the wheel marks, he's putting out a few flags or streamers. plus the odd gas gun. In a "normal" year, this would make very little difference but this year, these small measures seem to be very effective. Instead of just landing in a different part of the field, they are gone forever. Depressing....

I'm usually a humble (well not so humble!) beater and enjoy seeing Guns shoot at pigeons that are way out of range. Another downside which I fell into is "Pigeon Shooter" reload syndrome. I was on a quiet drive at the end of the line and didn't expect to see a game bird, so I tried a shot at a distant pigeon (and missed). NB I had fired the bottom barrel, so it takes longer to reload. Straight away I started to open the gun but at that second a super, high, cock pheasant headed my way. I shut the gun before it could eject, mounted the gun, pulled through the bird and pulled the trigger CLICK! The gun had recycled without ejecting so had tried to fire the used cartridge. Pulled through the bird again, pulled trigger - NOTHING. Of course, no recoil from the 1st barrel so it hadn't selected the other barrel. Quick as a flash, ON/OFF with the safety, got the gun to fire the 2nd barrel but hadn't pulled through enough. Just got enough of the back end for it to plane down a field away but the Picker-ups did get it. The keeper was watching all this and shouting abuse. So, choose your pigeon JD, use the top barrel 1st for quicker reloads and get the new cartridge in your hand ready before opening the gun.

I wish I had!! I shot 30 on Wednesday but it took me all day. (should have been 40, of course but I never shoot well if it's 40 minutes between shots)

That's standard game shoot etiquette

After weeks of eating bird food off and under my neighbour's bird table, my local tame pigeons suddenly took a liking to the ivy berries in her hedge instead. The weather had not turned cold or anything, do ivy berries get "ripe" and therefore more appealing?? Before I scared some away by pulling up the blind, there were about 15 on her little hedge.. PS Today they are cooing and jumping on each other. This must mean either that spring has sprung OR ivy berries are an aphrodisiac. DON'T try it Guys, only joking!!

Yes, in past years I have suspected that these Scandinavians were a little smaller and darker, the extreme edge of the feathers has a very faint, almost golden tint. Anyone else noticed?? Not see any yet this year.

West/South West means they are going to The Bahamas! Not a bad idea as there are not many pigeons to shoot here!!

Not all of it, the thread was only started 2 days ago! I read a few pages and the repetition started to get to me....

What is snow?? I've forgotten. Seriously, the "Old Hands" at this game (I'm only 62 and been after them most of my life) always say that they don't like rape once it's tall, "'cos it's bitter". Wonder how they know? For sure they like it short (easier to land in??) but always seem to manage to feed along the wheel marks, especially where the tractor turns. These turning points are also in range of the hedge so COULD be a good factor for us?? We will see..

Who paid for thid load of waffle???

I wish it was!! Used to be, more or less, with a quiet spell in early summer. Now it's quiet all year with a burst of excitement at drilliing time and another at harvest. Even then, the birds are spoilt for choice and hard to pin down in my area.

No, just the odd tree with a few. Sloes, blackthorn etc have lots. Just been out searching all morning, saw more deer, more alpacas in the fields than I did pigeons!!

Only had it happen for me once, in all these years. Great when it did, windy so the sound of shots were lost. They were coming downwind at one H of a speed over a long hedge about 60 feet up. If you could guess which bit of the hedge they were over next you could have some great snap shooting. However, if you stood a bit back from the hedge to get a better view, they would see you and you had NO chance. Great sport, worst kill/shot ratio ever, but who cares???

Why not eat them? They can turn out really good,

I'm afraid you will have to get used to it in your new home, not in the Cotswolds now!

At least you had the 200 off it. In feb they cut most of the game cover up but a little strip was left. Pigeons all over what remained of the rape, plus the smashed maize. 1000's of them. I sat up a tiny hide in the remaining strip and sat there for 4 hours without seeing ONE pigeon within 400 yards. My only blank in about the last 5 years!!

Yes, just noticed the same thing in the crops of some of my victims from yesterday. Is this a new trick they have learnt, or have I just not know it before - I had always thought that a green field was no use to the birds, unless there were weeds to eat.

No, mainly clay soil here.

One of my farmers, who didn't let me shoot his rape last year because of the pheasants, (it was decimated) said it yielded so badly he's not planted any this year. Helloooooooo???

Just got back from my long holiday and have been out looking for birds. Some are in the paddocks, some are on fallen acorns and some are on the late drillings, as you would expect. But I aslo saw considerable numbers on wheat/barley fields where the crop had already grown a few inches. I know there could be weeds in there too, but crawling about on my hands and knees failed to find any. The pigeons were definitely feeding on hte fields, not just resting up, as determined with the bins. So what is going on??