Lack of young pigeons

[marsh man]

I agree with Motty there are getting more on the barley fields now, and having just got home to watch the football after been out shooting since 1 o clock, I was a bit surprised after reading Mottys and JDogs last posts where both said they had a lot of young pigeons in there last bags, well today I picked up 46 and I only had two young ones and one of them was shot just before I packed up so I had over 40 with only one young one among them , but I was more than happy with the amount I saw today......Good times ahead.......Hopefully. .

[stuy]

A nice afternoon by the sound of that marsh man , what were you shooting over?

had another drive about seen a few, but not loads but will have a pop at them Saturday afternoon on the peas.

Of the pigeon I saw today there seems to be a lot young ones here in hereford.

[JDog]

Of the 45 I picked on Monday 10 were young birds. Some were mature young birds and one was probably on it's maiden flight. Had it not been the second part of a double I doubt whether I would have shot at it.

[marsh man]

A nice afternoon by the sound of that marsh man , what were you shooting over?

had another drive about seen a few, but not loads but will have a pop at them Saturday afternoon on the peas.

Of the pigeon I saw today there seems to be a lot young ones here in hereford.

Today I was shooting over knocked about barley rather than laid stuy , had to tape my cradles onto some bamboo canes to show my decoys just above the barley which is over three foot tall ,put my magnet out with the extending arms on plus two floaters , never got one r + l as it was hard enough for my dog picking one up at a time let alone two , the only one I lost around my decoy pattern was me own fault as I shot a pigeon while my dog was looking for one and when he came out of the standing barley with one in his mouth I wasn't sure what one he had got . I looked at all our peas yesterday and they have got flat pods on and would you believe not a single pigeon to be seen, with them having young in the nest I would have thought milky grain was there choice of diet rather than peas.

[stuy]

Today I was shooting over knocked about barley rather than laid stuy , had to tape my cradles onto some bamboo canes to show my decoys just above the barley which is over three foot tall ,put my magnet out with the extending arms on plus two floaters , never got one r + l as it was hard enough for my dog picking one up at a time let alone two , the only one I lost around my decoy pattern was me own fault as I shot a pigeon while my dog was looking for one and when he came out of the standing barley with one in his mouth I wasn't sure what one he had got . I looked at all our peas yesterday and they have got flat pods on and would you believe not a single pigeon to be seen, with them having young in the nest I would have thought milky grain was there choice of diet rather than peas.

well just had a call from a farmer said he has more than a few! On his peas he rekons 250+ on the telegraph poles he said he said there not feeding there before 6pm , I know the field in question its a bit awkward to shoot with a few cottages around.

But will knock a couple of doors tomorrow and let them know and see what happens

[lakeside1000]

I haven't seen a young bird yet, all so far are fully matured birds, but I've noticed the weight differs a lot with each bird, some feel well over a kilo but others have very little on them, I will have to get some canes for my cradles as I was struggling trying to get the decoys high enough, the barley is the short hardy type, no matter how hard it rains or blows it just stands through it all, the only patches that are down are two small areas where the rooks have been in it, or along the tram lines.but It didn't seem to matter to the pigeons, I set up in the tram lines and they were trying to land next to my decoys on standing crop, they seemed a bit puzzled as to how the others had managed to land on it, one fluttered about for several seconds trying to get his feet down before I saved him the trouble, good times.