army646 Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 I spend most of my time driving around the country as part of my job and have read one or two posts regarding the lack of pigeons this year and can't help but tend to agree that there definately does seem to be far fewer this year. I have not really seen that many large flocks. The largest I have seen I would say is probably about 60+ birds and that was a while ago. The majority of the larger numbers of birds that I have seen are tending to move just after first light, probably around 8.00Am. I have not seen that many birds dropping into rape fields, but have seen more in the last couple of weeks. In past years in January, the birds are generally moving in their largest flock numbers and I have seen flock numbers into the thousands and yes what everyone says is true and **** law they are generally not where you are or gone no sooner than they appear. But overall there have been plenty of birds evident in the past at this time of year. What worried me a little was that when I was reading through the latest edition of the BASC magazine, there was a section that was asking for all shooters to report cases of the disease Trichomoniasis, particularly in woodpigeons. For those who do not know, this is a nasty little organism that can affect birds and shows itself as 'plaques' or cheesy looking deposits that form in the mouth and throat. Normally when they are in the final stages they tend to just sit with their feathers fluffed out looking pretty listless and then finally carc it. Due to having to do 'man work' at home to keep the missus sweet, I have not been out shooting recently so cannot comment on this one. Any body seeing anything like this? Is there a problem/outbreak of this ATM? Is this reducing numbers? Oh and by the way to put everyone's minds at rest the bird strain is not transmissible to humans. Everyones comments, thoughts and observations would make interesting reading for us all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Certainly very few around here. I assume they are around - possibly further north - but they have enough natural food to keep them off the rape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39TDS Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Never seen so many in all my life, and I am old. Not massive flocks but loads of 50-60 size flocks going by all day (defo not the same ones) All still on ivy berries though and not bunched together yet. A blast of winter will do it I reckon in the next week or so. A big helicopter came over today and that made them come out of the trees, there were a fair few of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haytime Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 The largest flock I have seen was yesterday on the A1 near the A61 junction....must of been about 100 birds flying around. Just need them to travel about another 40 miles and bob's your uncle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Actionpigeons Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) I have about a mile of rape all in one line on the land I shoot and there is a cpl of flocks of about 500 birds. Finding them a little hard to decoy with there being so many. If they come they all come, one shot and they go to the other end of the rape. We have used rope bangers lately and had some success. No shortage here. Edited January 14, 2012 by Actionpigeons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacrowbasher Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I was under a flight line the other day and I have never seen so many birds not big flocks I grant you but lots of smaller groups of say 10 to 12 birds but it was a constant stream the ones I did manage to shoot were very plump and full of ivy berries. I also noticed lots of pairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Essex Hunter Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I spend most of my time driving around the country as part of my job and have read one or two posts regarding the lack of pigeons this year and can't help but tend to agree that there definately does seem to be far fewer this year. I have not really seen that many large flocks. The largest I have seen I would say is probably about 60+ birds and that was a while ago. The majority of the larger numbers of birds that I have seen are tending to move just after first light, probably around 8.00Am. I have not seen that many birds dropping into rape fields, but have seen more in the last couple of weeks. In past years in January, the birds are generally moving in their largest flock numbers and I have seen flock numbers into the thousands and yes what everyone says is true and **** law they are generally not where you are or gone no sooner than they appear. But overall there have been plenty of birds evident in the past at this time of year. What worried me a little was that when I was reading through the latest edition of the BASC magazine, there was a section that was asking for all shooters to report cases of the disease Trichomoniasis, particularly in woodpigeons. For those who do not know, this is a nasty little organism that can affect birds and shows itself as 'plaques' or cheesy looking deposits that form in the mouth and throat. Normally when they are in the final stages they tend to just sit with their feathers fluffed out looking pretty listless and then finally carc it. Due to having to do 'man work' at home to keep the missus sweet, I have not been out shooting recently so cannot comment on this one. Any body seeing anything like this? Is there a problem/outbreak of this ATM? Is this reducing numbers? Oh and by the way to put everyone's minds at rest the bird strain is not transmissible to humans. Everyones comments, thoughts and observations would make interesting reading for us all. While you are driving around it will be very hard to see the 1000,s of birds in and around the woods! One keeper I spoke to guessed 2000+ birds in a very large wood on is feeding route… I see hundreds of them flying over very high heading from one area to feed and then back again…. It is just part of the changing season that people will have to put up with, we will get a bit more shooting when the pheasant season finishes and we can get in the woods for the short term, once all the easy picking are gobbled up then they will have to eat something else……… TEH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wriggler Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 There have been a few flocks of pigeons in the hundreds where I shoot but they all vanished over last weekend. I have seen the odd dozen or so birds but the big flocks have gone. It doesn't help that there are three large woods around my permission and every farmer seems to have put rape in this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I believe two bitter winters and two summers of bad Tricho have reduced bird numbers significantly . On my Breeding Bird surveys for the BTO this year Pigeon recordings were definately down...I dont know if thats the same nationally until the last surveys results are available. However pigeons much prefer Ivy berries to rape and this year as the weather has been so incredibly mild there is plenty of Ivy about. One tree in my Garden covered in Ivy had 13 birds on it earlier in the week, and a bird I shot over a maize cover crop last week was so packed full of Ivy berries it must have struggled to get airbourne. ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unapalomablanca Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Imagine how many there would be if there was a 1 year ban on shooting them. I reckon you would be ****** off with the amount!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proTOM1 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 No shortage here seen some huge flocks of 2 to 3 thousand but all on keepered land but soon be time to have ago at them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter.123 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Iv been out today and in Suffolk there is definetly NO shortage of pigeons!! A hell of alot of flocks from 20-200 birds they're just not that interested in decoying to rape around here yet altho they are full of rape Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I don't think there is any shortages of wood pigeon. The birds I would normally be shooting through December and January are all still in the woods and on the hedgerows. Pigeons don't fly about for fun, just for food and at the moment they have all the food they need at, or near, their roost areas. I have seen very large flocks in and around the woods in my area, but none of the areas are available to me. The mild weather (especially in the South) is almost unprecedented. The comparatively low numbers currently being shot through this Winter will mean a heavy increase in the birds on the drillings this Spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
army646 Posted January 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Right a bit of an update to my original post 'definately fewer pigeons'. Ended up working today, which meant a trip from the M65 junction down the M6 to Warrington. I live in Skipton and at 7.00Am this morning we were down to -6 degrees, so a fairly good old coating of the icy stuff. I normally start to see pigeons on the morning flight at a about 8.00Am and over the past couple of days on my waydown to Warrington I usually see birds moving west to east across the M6 around Haydock Park area. In the past couple of days there has been a steady stream of small numbers. This morning was different there was a significant increase in the number of birds, more like the usual amount that I would expect to see moving about at that time of the morning at this point in the year. I think that I have got to say that there has to be some thing to the statement I have heard so many times that cold weather always seems to 'keen them up' and get them roving about a bit more. That definately appeared to be the case this morning. I hope that we have not got a problem with pigeon numbers, as I really enjoy the sport and eating what I shoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter.123 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I agree totally with that post. We will all be saying how the pigeon is on the increase in march/april because of the low amount being shot at the moment, if we had stayed at the woods today we would have had a decent bag.ss123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR1960 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Iv been out today and in Suffolk there is definetly NO shortage of pigeons!! A hell of alot of flocks from 20-200 birds they're just not that interested in decoying to rape around here yet altho they are full of rape Where's my invite then?? :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CZ550Kevlar Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 BASC say numbers are up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 i don,t think numbers are down they are just being secretive in the woods and trees eating ivy berries and acorns, you will see come spring time that numbers are not down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossy835 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 i walked around 4 farms today, all rape and no pigeons on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smig4373 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 NOTHING in Cornwall at the mo...Been out again all day today...Not a Sausage...Driven miles and spoke to about 6/8 farmers down west..(Hayle/Gwinear/Cambourne area)...NO PIGEONS...Did see 2 daytime foxes this morning tho...which was nice. :good: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter.123 Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Where's my invite then?? :P It was me that was invited out to there permission, havnt seen a pigeon on my land since harvest!! Plenty of rabbits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr D Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 there's no shortage of birds, there's just alot of food. Before Christmas there were huge flock here. I was regularly seeing 10,000+ flighting out in the morning in one particular area. All those birds have now gone. I don't know where, but they are certainly are not dead. What I think has happened (at least here) is that those birds have moved on mass to pastures new. I can remember this happening a number of years ago and then around February they all turned up again and the shooting was spectacular as the flocks broke up. Already I am noticing more birds about over the last week or so and bet this will be trend will continue over the weeks to come as the daylight hours start to stretch out. Pigeons are quite often a game of patience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR1960 Posted January 15, 2012 Report Share Posted January 15, 2012 It was me that was invited out to there permission, havnt seen a pigeon on my land since harvest!! Plenty of rabbits You better now then chap??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royboy Posted January 15, 2012 Report Share Posted January 15, 2012 Ive never seen as many pigeons in my life round were i live. Last Saturday i went out at about 2:30 and the pigeons were flighting non stop until is was nearly dark. They were like grouse some of them they were that close to the ground then flirting over hedges ! I just hope theres enough food round to keep them here until Feb !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motty Posted January 15, 2012 Report Share Posted January 15, 2012 Over the last few weeks i have seen more and more pigeons getting onto the rape. The nuts and berries are starting to diminish and the pigeons are forced onto the rape. I have seen rape fields that were not touched three weeks back, that are now showing 500+. I don't expect to shoot too many on the rape yet, the big bags for most people will more than likely be coming from cut maize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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