new rape permish... and knackered

[Dave-G]

Finalised a new near 400 acre permish of mostly arrable land yesterday, rape and winter wheat.

 

Farmer took me for a lookaround on his quad.

 

This is the first time I have seen the sheer devastation that pigeons do to rape.

 

The crop was supposed to be some 2'+ tall by now.

 

Apart from some small patches of 18" tall near the field centres/brows (strangely?) the crop was 2" in some places - but some 75% of the fields had been stripped almost bare.

 

This expains why he was so keen to convert me to pigeon shooting - even asking if I wanted a shottie - which I declined. In further attempts to steer me away from bunnies he said he likes his wildlife so I'm actually quite surprised he agreed in the end. I reckon it was because I was willing to use a rimmie where his shottie guys cant reach. Fortunatly he has woodland within rimmie shot range of several of the bare patches.

 

Buy the time we had finalised the permission - A "by prior arrangement one" - it was too late for any pigeon so me and my younger brother (visiting from cornwall) strolled around till dark.

 

Got lamped up - and in about 4 hours of wet claysoil Stalking=hard going, we got 16 bunnies - and a dog fox to his 17HMR which I missed out on watching as I was retreiving a bunny in the other direction

 

It's probably a good job 'cos he'd probably have offered to let me take it - I have yet to experience this - and his CZ452-2E (?) is a heavy barrel one that weighs about 16 tons to me :*)

 

I Thanked farmer and got home thoroughly knackered intending to take a break then blast another permission I had let rest and saved for my bro's visit, and fell asleep on the sofa

 

I propose to revisit there soon and try my hand at rimmie pigeoning for him - and a magpie is on the shortlist for his larsen, which currently has an unconvincing looking plasic decoy in it. There is apparantly a group who shares the first maggies caught after a quiet spell,I'm thinking it would be a good move for me to help him to get the first live ones.

[DaveK]

Nice one. Enjoy

 

Dave

[Catamong]

Dave,

 

You won't recognise that rape field if you go back there in early July, as it will all be shoulder high.

 

It's amazing how pigeons can strip every bit of green off a rape field in the Winter, yet it bounces back so quickly after a bit of nitrogen and mild weather.

 

Also, Magpies are pretty easy to catch in a Larsen trap well baited with broken eggs or a dead young rabbit, but don't use a live call bird until the end of March, as it's too cold at night and the bird will die.

 

Far better to trap more intensively with 2 traps for a shorter period, from April through to July, when Magpies are causing real damage to nesting birds.

 

Cat.