motty Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 I'm certainly enjoying reading about people's findings and experiences in different areas. Keep them coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Mat Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Personally i wouldnt think that the wood pigeon is evolving as drastically as some thing, what i think it is, is a change in farming. Just think whats happened in the last 50 years? Sat navs and super efficient machines mean there is less food on one field for the pigeons so "huge" numbers don't build up. I've been watching a flock of 300/400 the last couple of days and they are not feeding on what people would expect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passionforangling Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 I agree with the OP...certainly in the village I live in there is a pigeon on nearly every rooftop, on the verges as you drive through and in the park. It's not just pigeons though it seems to me. I have lived here all my life ( 50 odd years) and now see foxes more readily and certainly squirrels are more brazen. As a youngster I don't ever recall seeing foxes or squirrels in the village..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody walloper Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 more people going shooting now .some of these people are prepared to set up with very few pigeons actually feeding where they are shooting,i think the reason people struggled to get any sort of bag this winter was a a massive acorn crop still getting birds in with a corns in there crops. b avery mild winter the birds were not under any real pressure to feed. evolving idont think so . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Discussions on this Forum have proved that pigeon behaviour and numbers vary between the regions, throughout the year. There is no one simple answer to many of the questions, as circumstances vary so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Discussions on this Forum has proved that pigeon behaviour and numbers vary between the regions, throughout the year. There is no one simple answer to many of the questions, as circumstances vary so much. unfortunatly whatever you say or believe....thats what it all boils down to...........will say one thing tho'.....the boys who can go out and get a good day whenever, are very very lucky !....most of the shooters on here are like me.....and we often blank...we just dont have the numbers here reguarly to garantee sucess...thats why we are always looking for "the edge" some new gizmo or some different set up...we arnt in the position of using the same old magnet and the same number of decoys year after year and still getting results. i think "dyed in the wool" shooters are always the "glass is half full" type...a good attitude to have ! i look forward to a good year all the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitebridges Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 (edited) Modern seed drills are much more efficient than they used to be. On some of the stony ground we've got there used to be loads of spillage that took pigeons a good while to clear up. We always used to shoot such fields on the third day after their numbers had built up. Nowadays they've had the lot after a day. Sugar beet harvesting is a lot more efficient. We used to get a lot of chipped beet and tops. Nowadays some Norfolk farmers are putting their £600k sugar beet harvesters over it with no waste or by product after harvest. When OSR first appeared farmers used to leave the stubbles. More often than not rape stubbles and ploughed straight back in. There used to be a lot of spillage, i have witnessed fields black with spilt rape seed in the past. No longer.We used to shoot quite big bags on chickweed around October time but nowadays farmers nearly always spray the stubbles off and kill the weeds. Just a few examples of how farming practice has changed pigeon shooting in Norfolk and Suffolk IMO. Pigeons are also far more wary than they used to be. Gone are the days when three of us would hand cut cabbages and shoot a 100+ bag in the same field at the same time! Edited April 24, 2014 by Whitebridges Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Well, there we are..................it's that simple, I've obviously been sitting in the wrong hedgerows these past few years.................what an idiot.. If I'd have only known a bit more about the game I'd be getting regular 200 plus bags.. However, I'm not too sure that a game dealer based in Shropshire knows the slightest thing about pigeon numbers in South Herts, certainly none of the guys that I know in this area that are capable of shooting decent bags and whose opinions I value would suggest that bird numbers are anywhere approaching stable, they all agree that numbers are generally well down, fact. Cat. 100% agree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchrat Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Discussions on this Forum has proved that pigeon behaviour and numbers vary between the regions, throughout the year. There is no one simple answer to many of the questions, as circumstances vary so much. 100% agree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Every body who goes pigeon shooting will have a different answer, some are fairly new to the sport where other members have been going for years and then every answer will create another question , that's always been like that and it will continue as long as we keep shooting them. Like Big Mat says farming has made a difference when I started peas were on a four year cycle and the peas were taken off loose and the stubble was put on pallets to dry out ,rape was unheard of and a lot less people shot any large numbers mainly because there wasn't any market for them in this country and we used to get 9d in old money for them. The game dealer who put a bit on hear about getting bigger bags in now compared with ten years ago I would find the complete oppersite , ten years ago me and my brother were shooting 5000 plus a year with several bags of 100+ and even the odd 200 bag now we have more time to go we would have a job to get any where near it nowadays .While we have the amount of rape grown now we are always going to be up against it, even on the stubble you will have the same problems, mainly the amount of it and other crops available at the same time such as Barley, wheat, and beans all coming on at the same time as rape stubble. Never mind as long as some members keep posting big bags we know it can still be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 I was wondering what JDog had to say on the subject!!!!!!!!!!!!! Re the Game dealers comments he can only report what his collections are and as he says the bags have increased , Fact, from the areas that he collects from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kippylawkid Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 My best bags of pigeons have been around the A720 ring road on the outskirts of Edinburgh. City birds flighting out to feed on stubbles. They are far less wary than country birds. I travel to Edinburgh regularly and use the ring road. Do you shoot the rape fields on the south side of the bypass near the Dreghorn Junction. Regularly seen big numbers on them (Dodgy screcrows on the field too!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 What ever peoples theory's are ,and there are some good ones on this thread . The fact is that I am seeing less pigeons on my beat than I have for years . It's not for fact of trying ,but I am shooting less pigeons than I ever have In the past . I am not a novice and do know how to shoot pigeons . The damage on the rape is minimal this year caused by pigeons but there is a lot of damage that has been done by deer ,whole headlands grazed down to the ground . I have seen as many as 20 fallow deer chomping into the rape . But that's another storey. Harnser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 What ever peoples theory's are ,and there are some good ones on this thread . The fact is that I am seeing less pigeons on my beat than I have for years . It's not for fact of trying ,but I am shooting less pigeons than I ever have In the past . I am not a novice and do know how to shoot pigeons . The damage on the rape is minimal this year caused by pigeons but there is a lot of damage that has been done by deer ,whole headlands grazed down to the ground . I have seen as many as 20 fallow deer chomping into the rape . But that's another storey. Harnser that is the situation with me...for months i have been thinking that the birds are "dieing" out but the more i have travelled about, to areas up to 20 miles away from my patch, there are birds galour....i have just got back my shooting south of norwich after 4 years without and until last week there were in excess of 7000 birds there in different sized flocks, i was hoping to get out there this week but speaking to both the keepers the flocks have now broken up...so im stuffed till pre-harvest...even then i have a short window as the game birds start going out ...........the birds are still there in the quanities but their habits and haunts have changed in many areas...for what reasons i will never know....still they may come back into my local patch with force....anyway heres hoping..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddaftspaniel Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 I travel to Edinburgh regularly and use the ring road. Do you shoot the rape fields on the south side of the bypass near the Dreghorn Junction. Regularly seen big numbers on them (Dodgy screcrows on the field too!) I have shot around there in the past but never on rape always on stubbles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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