Unexpected afternoon

[JDog]

Yesterday was still and very sunny, not ideal for decoying in most circumstances. At long range with the binoculars I had seen birds going into a wheat stubble the previous day and when I got close up I could see that of five fields of wheat three had still to be harvested. I have never known it to be the case in the Cotswolds that cereals were still standing in October.

 

Three fields ran alongside a road so they were out of the question and the remaining two fields were sloping down hill which was great for viewing but the hide position would by necessity see me facing into the sun. I am never comfortable in circumstances like this but if I was to shoot then facing a bright sun it would have to be.

 

I pushed 200 birds off when I set up and set up the rotary and decoy pattern. The first birds back were wary and peeled off 60m from the hide position. They certainly did not see me in the hide as I had a wide brimmed cap on, I kept perfectly still and I had two layers of netting to hide behind. I surmised that the rotating arms of the rotary were glinting in the sun so I took it down. After that birds came well for two hours and I picked 57 pigeons and three carrion crows. Interestingly the ratio of young to old was very diffferent from my recent outings. Of the 57 shot there were only 15 young birds.

[pigeon controller]

Good report, I watched a pair of shooters last week and they had birds shying off the decoys as the magnet was flashing like a beacon . I wound green garden twine ( sizel I think) round the square section and mat painted the prong arms this has produce a zero reflective set up. Well done for getting the result.