kitchrat

Like I say, loads of time to ponder on what's going wrong when it isn't going right!!! Good!! Please do, but at least I'm entertaining you all!!

If they were coming in over your shoulder, I suspect they were seeing into your hide. If the buzzard and magpies came in, the hide must have been good from the front anyway. I know pigeons will look down into your hide if they can, build a roof if they are coming over from behind. I've wondered about feathers too, and clear up the worst of them. I've also wondered about spent cartridges from autos getting thrown out of the hide and into view. I wonder about a lot of things in the lean times - and there are lots of them!!!

I use a SxS (28 inch barrels) because I find I can swing it quicker to snap onto a kinking bird or the 2nd of a pair. I expect that's all in my head but it works for me. It is lighter too. A double trigger is great so as to have the choice of choke and ammo, a lighter load of 6's in an open choke if they are coming in well, a bit more lead (and 5's) in the other, tighter barrel for long shots and nailing the 2nd bird as it trys to escape!! I know you can select with an o/u but it's one more thing to think about when time is tight!!

Sounds as though it's grown too well. Some people say it gets bitter as it grows (how would they know?) but observation does show they like it short. Look for previously-grazed areas. Could just be easier landing?? Or is it sweet and juicy when short?? That's the pattern with, for example, beech leaves. They love the buds and just-emerging leaves, then no interest after that.

I think I've noticed that we have less birds when Northern Europe has a mild winter.ie Scandinavia and the "Low Countries" (If I can still call them that without the PC Police getting me!) Any comments??

In the winter I do find that some of the birds I shoot are slightly smaller, slightly darker and the feathers have a tiny yellow or gold fringe at the extreme end. Are these imports? Just the same in other respect, neck ring, yellow beak etc

Sounds just like the problems I get in Essex. Are you in that part of the world too? When I see Crowman or Big George standing up, in a hide in the middle of the field, head and shoulders showing, I know I wouldn't even see a bird, let alone shoot one. It seems to be a local problem, one little corner of my perms is much easier, I get 90% of my birds from this 5% area, no difference in crops or farming methods, just I can't them to come in on all the rest of my ground. Plenty about, they just know the game too well!!

Why should they folow flightlines to anywhere in particular? There are lots of fields local to them, each of which can support local birds but not a big built up like the old days. So divide and be fat is the game to play, and they are!!

Rape stubble didn't work here!!

Nice to see that the "Elder Statesmen" of the forum agree with me that it's getting harder. I remember the plastic pipe or bits of blue jeans days, now flappers and magnets, walkers and floaters are losing their appeal. I think there are more birds about, due to OSR and perhaps global warming?. In the old days most birds either starved to death in the winter, flew to Europe or were too thin to be worth shooting. In the winter now, they fly in from Europe ( my pal has seen flocks of 1000's coming in near Southend, like geese in Canada) and they are plump with yellow fat. This also puts paid to the old saying "They have to eat each day", they don't, on those cold foggy days nothing moves all week. Round here they are never allowed to settle, the world's supply of gas guns keeps them jumpy in winter. At harvest time fields are cultivated in minutes, no build up again. So you end up with birds spread all over the place, each feeding on his own local patch. When they do flock up in winter they again cannot settle and are here one minute, gone the next, even if not put off by anything. I expect there are more shooters too, but not in winter, only us hard core go out. But the birds are learning our tricks all too fast, whether by natural selection or teaching or both I don't know. In an earlier post I described seeing adult birds steer a young bird away from my magnet. We need a new gadget - remember how well the early magnets worked? Can anyone develop a hologram machine of birds dropping in like rain (please!!)

Did you see my thread " Stubbles are not the Holy Grail"?? Now, some 4 or 5 weeks later, it's almost all over here. All cut, mostly cultivated. Pigeons all over the place but only about 1 per 10 acres. No build up in numbers. I've used £100's of fuel, spent days and days watching fields and have shot about 225 birds so far this harvest including the one day it really worked, with 104. I have done little else but reccy, plan and shoot. The birds must have cost me about £2 each, but I got 15p each back. Still loved it!! But, NO, harvest is not the Holy Grail anymore. (don't know if there is one these days)

Did you see my thread " Stubbles are not the Holy Grail"?? Now, some 4 or 5 weeks later, it's almost all over here. All cut, mostly cultivated. Pigeons all over the place but about 1 per 10 acres. I've used £100's of fuel, spent days and days watching fields and have shot about 225 so far this harvest including the one day it really worked, with 104. So, NO, it's not the Holy Grail anymore.

Good observations!! I don't think pigeons are that good yet, but are working on it!!

Yes I do need cheering up!!

I had been finding more birds on sub-soiled or roughly disced stubbles than on a "virgin" stubble. My theory is that the chaff cutter on the combine can cover any lost seed with chaff, a bit of rough cultivation can uncover some seed again. Don't forget that pigeons can't/don't scratch like a blackbird can. This year it seems to me that farmers are bailing more straw, so the above doesn't apply so widely. Is that why we are finding birds more widely (and therefore more thinly) spread, because more fields are more attractive?? Typical bird density round here is less than 1 bird per acre on the whole but most fields have a few pairs on. No build up worth mentioning and they soon move off when disturbed.

Near me I have a nice rectangular field of wheat stubble, maybe 300yds x 900yds (approx 55 acres) Along one long edge is a quiet, unfenced, unhedged road. There are perhaps 100 pigeons building up on it. If you drive or cycle past, they look up and get on with eating. Today I cycled to the 1st corner and stopped, quite still, to watch. Within 5 minutes all birds had moved to the diagonally opposite corner. I cycled up to the other end of the road side (still 300yds from "their" corner,) and watched again. Inside 5 minutes all birds had gone and none returned within the next 15 minutes. To the best of my knowledge there is little shooting done round here, the major landowner is anti and the others all have game shoots, so no go there either. I had a shower this morning, made no sudden noise or movement. What's going on???

I shoot in Essex a lot and struggle to get the birds attention without a magnet. However, once I have got them coming in, they often veer away and I wish I hadn't got the magnet out. Can't win them all, I'd rather have difficult shots than no shots....

You need to pull birds from a distance, unless you are lucky enough to have a constant supply.

They won't get much shooting dressed like that!!

Totally agree. My magnet has matt camo duct tape on every part and I build stalks up around the base and motor. Sometimes they still pull away. However, I feel you still need one to attract attention from a distance. I tried to make mine stop on a remote controller, so when I saw a bird turn in I could stop it, but the momentum of the 2 dead birds was too much. In my area there are few or no set flight paths, so I have to pull "passing trade"!

Good one!!

I can only shoot for the short times when I'm in the UK but I am on 212 since July16th, so that takes us past the magic 10k!! Plus I was at least 100 in January. Total 10,361

Tony Blair signed some EU treaty...... Comes with Poles, Romanians,, Latvians. Croatians etc,etc,etc........

Yes. mid-late afternoon has been less bad, but still a struggle.... And I don't have the modern communication stuff to keep me busy so I try to study bird behavoir instead. (doesn't get me far!) It seems they will only go in where there are lots of scattered, feeding birds. How the 1st one gets in I don't know. NB Has anyone used those 3-way feeding-birds rotary decoy machine things?? Not the magnet but birds moving on the ground. Any good???

Maybe so but the number of times that a little bunch of mixed birds came into view, then the woodies hung back while the doves went in, made me think it wasn't chance, but planned. Did annoy me though!!