Pigeons in a Haystack

[pigeon controller]

Friday saw us checking out some ground that Bunny Basher had text me that he had seen birds moving on in the week , after checking it out it was devoid of birds we we looked at it but we kept looking. We found lots of seed but no birds we ended up looking at some rape that we knew was tall but the birds like to sit in the trees. On our way past it we noticed three birds in the sky folding their wings and setting when we found the the field it was fodder turnips which we odd not see birds on except in really adverse conditions . Walking the field about a hundred birds lifted off . We asked a tractor driver passing who owned the field and it was a farmer who we have never shot on before so we drove to the farm and knocked the door , his wife answered and said he was out but would be back in thirty minutes and she would get him to ring us. One hour later I returned to the farm to ask again , as I approached the back door of the farm the farm dog decide to bite my hand I managed to push him away with my foot!! . The farmer came round the corner hearing the dog I asked if I could shoot and quoted a number of farms I shoot on, he was not sure so I said just today , we do not walk your ground we only decoy and he said yes. We set up and had five birds then the sky went black and we packed up and headed for the Disco. We sat out the thunder storm , hail ,rain and sunshine and set up again and had a further nineteen and it rained again.

 

Today we have traveled and found no birds at all to shoot at all , so the total for the weekend is twenty four birds and two hundred miles of looking.

Edited March 29, 2014 by pigeon controller

[JDog]

Not good for all of that effort.

 

Do you think that the birds have deserted the wooded areas of the Arden Forest for more arable ground in other areas?

[fruity]

Two hundred miles that's dedication , is the hand ok ?

[la bala]

Not good pc, good luck next time.

[pigeon controller]

Not good for all of that effort.

 

Do you think that the birds have deserted the wooded areas of the Arden Forest for more arable ground in other areas?

We still think they are in the woods on ivy berries as the birds we shot later on we're rammed with them . I've never thought of it before but perhaps the pigeons have Migrated South?????

Two hundred miles that's dedication , is the hand ok ?

Yes it's OK thanks it just drew a small amount of blood and soon stopped.

[cocknee]

We still think they are in the woods on ivy berries as the birds we shot later on we're rammed with them . I've never thought of it before but perhaps the pigeons have Migrated South? ? ? ??

 

Yes it's OK thanks it just drew a small amount of blood and soon stopped.

If they have migrated south they haven't reached my neck of the woods yet at least not out in open country they may have taken to the woods where I am still convinced the vast majority of woodpigeon are and will be for the next month or so till the leaf is out. I hope I am right and all you lot who say that numbers have fallen drastically are wrong we will have to wait a couple of months to see who is right.

[motty]

If they have migrated south they haven't reached my neck of the woods yet at least not out in open country they may have taken to the woods where I am still convinced the vast majority of woodpigeon are and will be for the next month or so till the leaf is out. I hope I am right and all you lot who say that numbers have fallen drastically are wrong we will have to wait a couple of months to see who is right.

Anyone who saw the amounts of birds I did today, would not be able to come to the conclusion that numbers are down.

[yickdaz]

so it happens to you as well, were you struggle to find any or enough to go at on the farms you shoot

 

we found about 500 in total on a massive block of drillings today but they were flying around in flocks of a hundred or so and landing on any field they liked kept firing shots to put them up only for them to get up and land in the next field, very hard to decoy them 5 out of 22 we shot actually decoyed, moved rotary flapper and decoys around numerous times but it didn,t help just one of them days were they didn,t want to play ball

[mossy835]

i went on 3 farms yesterday and shot 1 pigeon all day.where are they.

[Catamong]

Anyone who saw the amounts of birds I did today, would not be able to come to the conclusion that numbers are down.

 

Well, they are down in this area, even accounting for all of those who have stayed in the woods eating acorns, there are noticeably fewer birds about, possibly due to a bad breeding season last year...?

 

This time last year it was still bitterly cold, with ice and snow the main theme of the weather, as Fisherman Mike has said in other posts, this stopped the birds from starting breeding early and they therefore had a reduced number of clutches.

 

Funnily enough, the only place I did see a good number of birds was in North Norfolk in September, they were everywhere..literally..!!

 

 

Cat.