So who thinks we're on for a bumper year?

[turbo33]

Acorns and beechmast in abundance kept the birds away from most decoying situations this winter. It was so mild, the rape got away without much activity on the fields, and they have been breeding round here since late december...might noit even have stopped. Now the rain is keeping us away and there is little on the crop front getting thier attention until the laid.

 

So am I the only one thinking this could all be good news come june/july?

[mpk]

Yes im thinking lots of pigeons near harvest time.

 

Edit to change nope to yes ( frazzled brain)

Edited April 25, 2012 by mpk

[chrispti]

Acorns and beechmast in abundance kept the birds away from most decoying situations this winter. It was so mild, the rape got away without much activity on the fields, and they have been breeding round here since late december...might noit even have stopped. Now the rain is keeping us away and there is little on the crop front getting thier attention until the laid.

 

So am I the only one thinking this could all be good news come june/july?

 

Been thinking (hoping) the same mate Fingers crossed hey

[The Essex Hunter]

Acorns and beechmast in abundance kept the birds away from most decoying situations this winter. It was so mild, the rape got away without much activity on the fields, and they have been breeding round here since late december...might noit even have stopped. Now the rain is keeping us away and there is little on the crop front getting thier attention until the laid.

 

So am I the only one thinking this could all be good news come june/july?

 

 

 

Well I believe the acorns will cause just as much complaining as a few months ago….

 

 

TEH

[yickdaz]

Acorns and beechmast in abundance kept the birds away from most decoying situations this winter. It was so mild, the rape got away without much activity on the fields, and they have been breeding round here since late december...might noit even have stopped. Now the rain is keeping us away and there is little on the crop front getting thier attention until the laid.

 

So am I the only one thinking this could all be good news come june/july?

well i,m gonna get a good stock of carts in ready for the summer and and have a few weeks off work booked in advance in mid july, they haven,t been touched on most of our land this winter and not shot heavy on the rest of it so i for one am expecting a few on laid crops and at harvest

[chrispti]

well i,m gonna get a good stock of carts in ready for the summer and and have a few weeks off work booked in advance in mid july, they haven,t been touched on most of our land this winter and not shot heavy on the rest of it so i for one am expecting a few on laid crops and at harvest

 

Snap

[turbo33]

Snap

 

Here too

[Sharpshooter.123]

I'm expecting to hit the 600-700 bird Mark over harvest like we did in 2010-11 got to have more than I did early this year

[proTOM1]

Lets hope so , im now seeing good numbers around on any rape which is poor and just this afternoon found a few hundred on young sugar beet ,also seeing a good few young birds about with 3 shot this morning but saw another 5 or so flying around

[motty]

Hopefully i won't have to wait until harvest to get some good bags. It has been a really slow start to this year, but with quite a few pea fields starting to attract some interest and with plenty more peas still to be drilled, i am hopeful of some good shooting in the coming weeks.

[olddogfox]

I hope we start getting bit of action soon. Because the season started off slow at the moment. Pigeons where about but did not decoy well and now they have gone very quite.

 

olddogfox

[Gazz4spurs]

In Germany their is already a massive number of rabbits and quite a lot of Fallow and Roe feeding. Much more than I have seen in the last 5 seasons.

[Bleeh]

Hopefully i won't have to wait until harvest to get some good bags. It has been a really slow start to this year, but with quite a few pea fields starting to attract some interest and with plenty more peas still to be drilled, i am hopeful of some good shooting in the coming weeks.

 

Still waiting for the pea drilling to start! Rain stops play at the moment.

[Actionpigeons]

There may well be a few more pigeon this year but I think it will be down to the fact we had a mild winter. Very little frost and snow which ment the pigeons had an easier time this winter and were less concentrated on the crop in one area.

I seem to shoot about the same number each year give or take a hundred or so

[chrispti]

There may well be a few more pigeon this year but I think it will be down to the fact we had a mild winter. Very little frost and snow which ment the pigeons had an easier time this winter and were less concentrated on the crop in one area.

I seem to shoot about the same number each year give or take a hundred or so

 

Agreed.

 

The crops have been pretty much left alone, and because of the mild weather, the birds have been breeding since Janurary down here.

 

Come harvest time there will be alot of young, and adult birds, that have not been shot at

Edited May 6, 2012 by chrispti

[anser2]

If this weather keeps up I very much doubt it will be a bumper year. I have seen dozens of washed out nests with the rain , low temperatures and high winds over the past 6 weeks and high corvide predation due to lack of leaf cover ( leaf burst has yet to happen in N Norfolk with many trees such as ash and alder and even the oaks have less than 20% leaf cover , though the hawthorn is well out).

 

Across the country tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of early nests may have been lost. I suspect the best we can hope for is an average year.

Edited May 10, 2012 by anser2

[Templar 84]

its my first year game shooting so it will be a good one whatever happens! Looking forward to it, can't wait.

[Sharpshooter.123]

It's strange because here is sunny Suffolk (or not so at the mo) I have seen flocks of around 25-30 flying together still when I thought they had all broken up

[chrispti]

Already seeing young pigeons and a few ducklings about

[Salop Matt]

To be honest i think so far this year is the worst ive ever known, no quarry of any kind other than the very occasional rabbit and occasional crow. No pigeons, ive only shot about 15-20 tops this year and that was in feb roost shooting ! :( so its currently all clay work !

[linny]

It's strange because here is sunny Suffolk (or not so at the mo) I have seen flocks of around 25-30 flying together still when I thought they had all broken up

i posted this last week there is a big flock of them still around here 800 to 1200 of them. still flocked up just like winter strange went out to one of my rape fieids friday there is a big area that has been hit hard no flowers cut right down walked them off the very big flock up and gone . got set up they came back bang bang gone acting just like they do in winter

[proTOM1]

Already seeing young pigeons and a few ducklings about

 

Ive already shot about 8 young birds and seen a good few others about

[motty]

Ive already shot about 8 young birds and seen a good few others about

Two of my bag from saturday were young.

[Sharpshooter.123]

Really ****** off this morning!! Took my 9 year old son to school this morning and on the school field there must have been 400 pigeons feeding on clover I presume!! I clapped a few times, they lifted and dropped straight back down. There was a few young birds in that bunch too

[woodpigeon100]

This January was the best I've had since 1975 and February not far behind but March was very average and April and May terrible. There are no birds to be seen flying anywhere and none of the early peas have been touched at all. Talked to the Birds Eye field man and he says it's the same south of the Humber. Each year seems to get more all or nothing in respect of pigeons but as someone said it's surprising how you end up with same amount to within a few hundred each time.