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No Pigeons


mahmood
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A few birds in my area ( West Lancs ) but the are as wary as I've ever seen them due to shooting pressure. The vast majority have turned their attention to drillings.

Currently struggling to make a decent bag at weekend due to the drillings being shot 3 -4 times a week. I've no doubt the farmers happy. But making a good bags hard work.

At least we are getting a wind and birds are flighting on consistent paths again after their couple of weeks of hanky panky.

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:< I went for a 30/40 mile tour this morning covering most of our shooting land and i could literally count the pigeons i saw on one hand.

Has been absolutely hopeless for the past 2 weeks or more with this weather.

Never thought i would look forward to wind and cloud/rain so much in my life.

No excuse for not cutting the lawns either. :< :)<_<

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Pigeons are still on the rape here, but not to the extent of as at the beginning of the month. They seem to be at it early mornng, then return to their trees.

 

There are lots of pigeons in the trees at the moment, and I have been paying more attention to them as they fly overhead or come to rest. Been having some success with my pigeon call, which seems to work best late afternoon.

 

Pigeons are after the spring drillings now.

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At 7am this morning , I walked about 200 pigeons of a field, where the peas are just poking through the ground.

 

I set up with all things looking good.

By 2pm I had shot one crow and hadn,t seen a pigeon.

 

I left the field and returned at 4pm, still nothing on it.

One of the other Club members turned up and I was pleased to leave him to it.

 

He has just telephoned me, to ask what I am doing tomorrow.

I enquired what he had shot and the reply was "nothing", but he was staying until after 8pm.

 

Fishing might be a good plan.

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A client shot a bird today that had a very obvious full crop. This was at 2.00pm. He informed me that he thought they had found some more drilling and the bulk of the birds were probrably feeding there, which would account for the slow morning he was having...

 

I knew what was in the birds crop before I opened it up...

 

The birds crop was completely stuffed with Ash buds...

 

From now up to mid May we will lose a fairly large percentage of the woodies untill they have finished budding. I don't think that all the birds participate in bud feeding. I think that only the older, very experienced birds know which trees to feed on, and also when will be the best time to eat the buds...

 

Woodies also relish Beech flower. The long strands in the centre of the beech bud after it opens...

 

The Beech trees will start to produce flower in a normal year about mid April...

 

This time can be a real pain for the decoyer. Several weeks of hardly seeing any birds...

 

They really get stuck into budding on very still days. On windy days they have trouble getting to the ends of the branches so they tend to find other food stuffs, returning straight away to the trees just as soon as the wind drops...

 

TIMING IS CRUCIAL RIGHT NOW...

 

There is hardly any movement during the mornings at the moment...

 

Remember that the pigeons clocks have not gone forward...

 

All recce should be done at around 2.00pm (which is 1.00pm pigeon time) be set up to shoot the afternoon flight from 1.00pm. This should maximise your day, allowing her indoors a bit of your time as well...

 

BY THE WAY...

 

The client shot 79 for 135 shots. At 2.00pm he had 2 Carrion crows and 18 woodies. The best part of his day was 3.00pm - 6.30pm...

 

All the very best...

 

Shoot straight...

 

GARY...

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A few years ago I shot many good bags of woodies with an air rifle whilst sat under beech and ash trees.

Up here in Lancs the ash and beech are not open so I should think it will be a couple of weeks until they start on them. I think I'll try the same approach with the shotgun this year. Should get some good sport on pleasant spring evenings.

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Guest flightline
Pigeons are still on the rape here, but not to the extent of as at the beginning of the month. They seem to be at it early mornng, then return to their trees.

 

There are lots of pigeons in the trees at the moment, and I have been paying more attention to them as they fly overhead or come to rest. Been having some success with my pigeon call, which seems to work best late afternoon.

 

Pigeons are after the spring drillings now.

Hammergun,

I know we`ve had some comments on pigeon calls on here before-most people not really rating them unless for roost shoting-so I`m interested in how you use one as I purchased a call on the strength of your post. Also a crow call-any comments on the use of this please? <_<

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Up here in Lancs the ash and beech are not open so I should think it will be a couple of weeks until they start on them.

Oak before Ash,

We're in for a splash,

Ash before Oak,

We're in for a soak.

 

Does this saying hold good up north??

 

It refers to the sort of summer we can expect.

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I've been using the call in the wood just before it gets dark. Got a couple to come in to the call, but it takes practice.

 

Crow call - there are some sample calls on http://www.crowbusters.com Different calls mean different things. One of my mates has it off to an art and can make crows change direction and come towards the call. He also has an owl decoy which he sits out and uses the appropriate crow call. When they see the decoy and hear the call, they come straight in. You can call magpies too.

 

Takes some practice but it can be very effective, especially if you have the stinking corpse of a rabbit or other unfortunate anumal. Cow muck works too.

 

OK. I'm going to have a session this weekend. As the pigeons are eating ash buds at the moment, do you think I should set up in the wood and loft some decoys into the branches of some ash trees where the buds are coming out rather than have a go on the rape?

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Guest flightline

Thanks Hammergun. I think you should shoot at my house, where there are a number of really plump pigeons having it large with ash buds. Even better in the garden! <_<

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