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Spring rape and a bonus.


JDog
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I have been away for a week and on the detoured way back from the airport yesterday (Lady JDog spotted the reason straight away) I pulled up and glassed the field of spring rape that I had shot two weeks ago in the pouring rain. Guessing correctly that I could only stop for ten seconds at the most I just had time to watch some grey shapes in the distance going into the field before I was prompted to 'get us home'.

 

The storms abated by before eleven this morning and I had previously arranged for a friend with a good dog to come and shoot with me today. I am dogless in the shooting field with the demise of Jack, and Jasper at ten months is far too you to let loose in a field before his training has really begun. The dog would prove useful.

 

When we got to the field there were a hundred birds on it but there was another development since my wet day and that was that part of the field of failed spring rape had been cultivated and that is where the birds were feeding. Neither of us could see any reason why the birds were there and not in the rape.

 

We had no real birds between us to start with (mine were found to be riddled with maggots in the fridge just before we went on holiday) and we fiddled around with just flock coated decoys and some rather hopeful long shots until we managed to drag a couple down and set up the rotary. The use of the rotary worked straight away and drew birds into the pattern. Those birds had previously been passing 100m from us in a position which we could not have shot from. Birds came from either side and behind and in over four hours of shooting not one came from infront. We had an equal share in the shooting (but only after we had both altered our hides to enable us to shoot birds coming from behind) and in the end we packed up with 149 birds in the bag. The 150th fell dead in the standing winter rape nearby but even a good dog was unable to find it.

 

The conundrum is, where did the mature barley which we found in quite a number of crops come from? This was definitely not milky barley from this years crops. That is the bonus question.

 

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Edited by JDog
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Some of the barley looks to be starting to sprout so perhaps the pigeons got it from the cultivated patch of failed rape?

 

Welcome back from your hols and good result on the shooting btw.

Edited by aga man
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Some of the barley looks to be starting to sprout so perhaps the pigeons got it from the cultivated patch of failed rape?

 

Welcome back from your hols and good result on the shooting btw.

 

Yes I am guessing that it was from the cultivations after some of the rape had failed. They drilled a birdy mix and there must have been barley on the top. When we looked there was not a grain to be seen

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