Time of Day

[shoughton]

I haven't been out pigeon shooting at dawn recently - but it does seem dead around my parts until lunchtime, with action not really starting until about 1:30pm onwards. Are others seeing this too?

 

Around 5pm seemed the busiest time last night. Although on Saturday it was 2 until 3:30pm, in exactly the same spot.

 

They are spoiled for food at the moment and they're still cutting lucern and linseed fairly close, so it's damn hard to build a patternto work to at the moment.

 

I look forward to more order and predictability in a couple of weeks time. Fortunately on one of my shoots he hardly ever bothers to bale the straw or disc the field, so the shooting goes on for a good few weeks longer than elsewhere.

 

Saturday I managed 18 birds for 30 shots. Yesterday was 9 birds for 32 shots.

 

Steve

[Salopian]

Yes,

I am noticing the same thing, nothing really doing until after lunch, but it is in spells, sometimes 2.30 until 4 then maybe 3 till 5.

I suppose the best thing is to go for the afternoon armed with sandwiches and flask. A couple of times this last fortnight it has been dead all day and I thought that was that field finished then next day literally hundreds feeding and moving about.

[kippylawkid]

Birds are more active here in the afternoon, however I think the type of day it is influences the feeding behaviour more than anything.

Days with no wind at all usually means not much activity but breezy, dull days can see birds on the go all day long.

[mr wright-watt]

Good day all, some years ago a game shooting friend asked me to shoot some pigeons on peas, he said they had a couple of 100 bird days last week but had no time this week. I jumped at this offer,i was told where to park and walk along the hedge to a purpose built hide in the hedge complete with a drum seat but don't come till two. Two! i was there at twelve, decoys out gun loaded, i could see the church clock in the distance not a thing flying in the wind. I sat eating my piece and glassed the church it,s one fifty five, i'll give it half an hour. Then five birds peeled round and into the decoys, a left and right. That was the start of a 100 bird day finished at seven, my frend was five minutes out with his time!

regards ken w-w.

[shoughton]

Good comments. I was back at work today but my lad was out walking the dog between showers and in the strong winds. He reported that the skies were busy with pigeons on virtually every field he walked. There were some winds yesterday but not as strong as todays. I would suggest that unsettled weather with good winds seem to keep the birds on the move.

 

Incidentally all the birds I shot yesterday were chilled and then breasted this evening; every bird had an empty crop so I'm not convinced they were feeding anywhere else either!

 

I guess it's this that makes the good days even better.

 

Steve

[motty]

I'm now waiting for the pigeons to start hitting the bean stubbles. I would tend to go at either first light or 1pm onwards.

I shot 7 pigeons the other night whilst waiting for geese. 6 of the 7 were packed with wheat.

[M.I.A]

I was out on sat 1100-1800 and it was dead, nothing about. got 3 birds by the end of the day. a few of the fields near by were being plowed and im guessing all the pigeons were hitting that, i went along to the next field to where the farmer was plowing and stood along the hedge row. Everytime he done a pass they would all jump to the field i was in

 

But as for time wise over the last few weeks its been a steady flow, with a consistant quiet time between 1500-1700 its always been busy between 1700-1900 (apart from sat just gone)

[proTOM1]

Im now finding there feeding from first light till 8.30am ish then come back from 10am onwards ,as the days shorten they will soon change to feeding all day

[bunny_blaster]

Afternoons are producing the bags with me. Im seeing nothing in the mornings at the moment

 

Cheers

Ben