Blackpowder Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 Yesterday I went to the sixth roost shoot of our local club, saw three pigeon shot at two and missed. In the six shoots I dont think I have fired twenty shots, including one 100% kill to cartridge- one shot one pigeon. The luck of the draw for a decent wood has eluded me it must be said , but top guns have been coming in with only ten or a dozen pigeons. Our club shoots over a number of estatres in Berwickshire and Northumberland and have been doing so on some of the same ground since the early seventies. When I joined and up until five or six years ago, a good shot with a good wood would come in with something between 30 and 40 birds, a poor shot in the same wood might have twenty, or a good shot in a poor wood a similair number. Now the birds are just not there, simple as that. Habits also seem to have changed once you would hang on the the last moment before stopping time to get the flocks swooping in with a rush of air on fixed wings, pulling up as they reached the branches. Now half an hour or even an hour before finishing time its all over, might get a straggler or two in the last hour but no flocks. Now : how local are pigeons , has there ever been any study into migration or home terittories for native birds? Can it be that over the years we have had an effect on native stocks and have made a big reduction in their numbers? Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter.123 Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 Iv still got pigeons flying into hedgerows believe it or not and I'm not the only one!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 Iv still got pigeons flying into hedgerows believe it or not and I'm not the only one!!! Them Pigeons they love Ivy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdubya Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 no reduction in numbers up my way, had a great day friday, lots and lots of birds about, don't think shooting has had any effect whatsoever on numbers,the mild winter coupled with an already extended breeding season should see even greater numbers for the stubble shoots KW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
army646 Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 Just come back from a weekend in the lakes with a few mates. Stood on Sunday morning watching a pair of birds nesting. I would say that they were sitting on eggs. Talking to a shooting buddy who said he was out over Christmas and actually looked into a nest in a bush that had chicks in it on Boxing day! I think that the year has been a bit of a weird one with the unseasonal weather throwing everything out of kilter. I must admit I did start to question where the hell all the birds have gone in Yorkshire when I had a day out last weekend. In a nutshell the skies were devoid of birds and so were the woods. Put it this way I saw more birds sat on the lamp posts on my way to where I shoot than I did whilst sat in the hide. This is land where there was thousands last year. Have they decided to go covert and taken up walking so that we can't shoot them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpowder Posted April 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 Yes 646, I know what you mean. Last Saturday I stood back from my allotted wood and sought the skies for possible flight lines to no avail in all I would be lucky to have seen a handful of distant pigeon. Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M ROBSON Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 BP, Over the last 10 years the birds in this area have changed their habbits with regards roosting and nesting. We get young pigeons 12 months of the year now, nothing to do with mild weather, we shot young birds straight after 6 weeks of snow last winter! The reason for this is the birds are roosting and now nesting in built up areas, towns and villages, peoples back gardens. They love to nest in Leylandii and thick Holly bushes, we even see them nesting in the corners of straw barns. One farmer phoned me on Christmas eve last year (in the snow) to tell me he had a woodie sitting on eggs in the roof beams of his barn. As for roosting, we used to also have great pine woods for roosting, with massive flightlines. Now the best flightlines come from the towns, safe roosting. And if it's wet they have lots of clover to pick at and don't need to fly anywhere. The Woodpigeon is fast becomeing the Suburbanpigeon!!! Mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpowder Posted April 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 Yes also seeing a lot more roof top woodpigeons here, and lots working bird tables along with ferals. Yet away from my Club Shoots there have been some quite good roost nights, with plenty pigeon in the air , if not in the bag. In December our syndicate members were sitting in a trnasport cafe having breakfast and virtually all the time we were there, between ordering and finishing the meal there was a steady stream of pigeons flighting along the face of a hillside wood a few hundred yards distant. I think about four years ago I may have put up a post about woodies nesting in a new build I was working on. Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retromlc Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 i have more in the trees in the back of my garden than i have seen in the fields,and the only numbers i've seen are still in flocks,maybe they have clicked onto safty in numbers??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutchie the white hunter Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 HUNDREDS on the drillings up here :good: :good: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retromlc Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 HUNDREDS on the drillings up here :good: :good: well you are very lucky!!!!you wanna waste your time around here!!!!sod all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
air gunner Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 Went shooting yesterday only shot two pigeons. Driving home however we saw hundreds sitting on the edge of the road and in the villages on the wires and roofs, we saw more in urban areas than we saw all day in the field..... will pigeon shooting still be the same? or is this just a seasonal change and as soon as the new crops are up pigeons will be in abundance again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingerCat Posted April 11, 2012 Report Share Posted April 11, 2012 Not shot properly for a while (10 years). dropped in on an old farmer friend in lincs over easter seeing as she who must be obeyed has taken an interest in clay shooting and game (she cant be that bad i guess). he had thousands.i lived 100 yards way years ago and he never had that many. needles to say i got a permisson back. which was nice. hes growing peas this year which he has (to my knowledge) never done so that might have something to do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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