Close season for pigeon

[Columba Grey]

Hi does anyone implement a self imposed closed season during the nesting season and if so when would commence?

[Blunderbuss]

No. Whilst spring is the peak nesting season, wood pigeons are known to have produced broods in every month of the year.

[ditchman]

if you started to do that you would loose the land you shoot over......................farmer giles would not be a happy bunny.............dont forget you are shooting a crop pest......and whoever much you and the rest of us shoot, numbers tend to remain the same..

[fenboy]

No , funnily enough there are more shooters leave them alone all winter then turn up out of the woodwork when the first combine starts its engine , I wonder why that is

They can pretty much breed all year in fact a couple of young birds were in munchers and my bag last week , they must have been born late November if not early December.

 

Pigeon numbers are generally increasing year on year despite them being shot all year around.

[Andylea]

Shot to young birds Saturday (27thfeb) a first for me at this time of year

[pigeon controller]

Tend to drive down to Greece from May to August , leave DB to cover farms.

[lakeside1000]

The normal pair of wood pigeon will have three clutches of eggs per year, just 2 in each clutch, they can start laying in late February and lay the last 2 as late as October, if you imposed a closed season it would have to go from mid February until late November or early December, totally impracticable and would leave crops virtually unprotected for the entire spring summer and autumn, Its a fairly easy thing to simply select only adult bird when shooting, youngsters tend to be much smaller and they don't have the white neck bars until after the first moult , Personally I feel the farmers have asked you to shoot pigeons for a reason,young birds will cause just as much damage as adults, would you only shoot rats when they are not carrying or caring for young ,I think not,pigeons are simply rats with wings , get out there and do your job or let someone else do it properly.

[motty]

The normal pair of wood pigeon will have three clutches of eggs per year, just 2 in each clutch, they can start laying in late February and lay the last 2 as late as October, if you imposed a closed season it would have to go from mid February until late November or early December, totally impracticable and would leave crops virtually unprotected for the entire spring summer and autumn, Its a fairly easy thing to simply select only adult bird when shooting, youngsters tend to be much smaller and they don't have the white neck bars until after the first moult , Personally I feel the farmers have asked you to shoot pigeons for a reason,young birds will cause just as much damage as adults, would you only shoot rats when they are not carrying or caring for young ,I think not,pigeons are simply rats with wings , get out there and do your job or let someone else do it properly.

No they are not!!!

[chrisjh]

The normal pair of wood pigeon will have three clutches of eggs per year, just 2 in each clutch, they can start laying in late February and lay the last 2 as late as October, if you imposed a closed season it would have to go from mid February until late November or early December, totally impracticable and would leave crops virtually unprotected for the entire spring summer and autumn, Its a fairly easy thing to simply select only adult bird when shooting, youngsters tend to be much smaller and they don't have the white neck bars until after the first moult , Personally I feel the farmers have asked you to shoot pigeons for a reason,young birds will cause just as much damage as adults, would you only shoot rats when they are not carrying or caring for young ,I think not,pigeons are simply rats with wings , get out there and do your job or let someone else do it properly.

 

Technically dinosaurs

[point and shoot]

I read recently that there are an estimated 5.4 million breeding pairs in the UK. Keep at 'em at every opportunity I say!

[anser2]

I do not shoot pigeons between April and July and while I know they will breed in almost any month of the year at least it gives the birds a bit of respite which in my area they sorely need. For the past five years the pigeon population has been heading one way --- down. From regulary producing 100 bird days and the odd 200 bird day for the past 5 years anything over 20 is exceptional. Three nights shooting on what used to be a very good roosting wood this February produce a 2. 0 and 1. A friend roost shooting in East Norfolk is having similar results this year.

 

I have never had any complaints from my farmers for not shooting in spring , but then none grow peas.

Edited March 2, 2015 by anser2

[yickdaz]

No they are not!!!

+1

[Catamong]

pigeons are simply rats with wings

 

I do hate it when posters make a statement like this, you obviously don't know the difference between a Town Feral, (i.e. Winged Rats), and a Wood Pigeon, (certainly one of the most noble birds in the Countryside).

 

Cat.

[Guest stevo]

I do not shoot pigeons between April and July and while I know they will breed in almost any month of the year at least it gives the birds a bit of respite which in my area they sorely need. For the past five years the pigeon population has been heading one way --- down. From regulary producing 100 bird days and the odd 200 bird day for the past 5 years anything over 20 is exceptional. Three nights shooting on what used to be a very good roosting wood this February produce a 2. 0 and 1. A friend roost shooting in East Norfolk is having similar results this year.

 

I have never had any complaints from my farmers for not shooting in spring , but then none grow peas.

I think you find that is more a case of birds just moving on , not that there being wiped out , there numbers are up year on year out , just pulled this from the

 

British Trust for Ornithology

 

Woodpigeons have increased by nearly two thirds in the latest decade, with populations doing particularly well in areas such as south-east England and East Anglia. This population boom appears to be due to altered agricultural practices. Changing from spring-sown to autumn-sown cereals, and the introduction of oil seed rape have led to green foods being available all year round, leading to improved overwinter survival and a longer breeding season. The increase in Woodpigeons has been reflected in the results of the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch, and it is now one of the most commonly reported birds in the UK’s gardens.

 

KEEP SHOOTING EM

Edited March 2, 2015 by stevo

[JDog]

I must confess that I have a self imposed close season for wood pigeons. It runs from midnight on 24th December to midnight on 25th December.

[Catamong]

Well, if they're only moving on and not declining, they're certainly not heading down my way.

 

Numbers are definitely on the decline over the last 10 years or so, one of my farmer friends agrees and reckons it's due to the vast numbers of Red kites we now have in the area, taking the young birds.

 

I'm not so sure about that theory, but whilst there are undoubtedly more birds in peoples back gardens, there are fewer venturing out onto the fields to feed.

 

Cat.

[Guest stevo]

Well, if they're only moving on and not declining, they're certainly not heading down my way.

 

Numbers are definitely on the decline over the last 10 years or so, one of my farmer friends agrees and reckons it's due to the vast numbers of Red kites we now have in the area, taking the young birds.

 

I'm not so sure about that theory, but whilst there are undoubtedly more birds in peoples back gardens, there are fewer venturing out onto the fields to feed.

 

Cat.

well not according to the British Trust for Ornithology

[fenboy]

I perhaps saw more pigeon this last season than I have for years , on one outing with Motty I would estimate 4000 or more were using a large field and another on some of my bean stubble I saw a good 2-3000 , only last week I saw a estimated 2000 on a smallish maize cover , so there does not seem to be a shortage in these parts.

[FalconFN]

I perhaps saw more pigeon this last season than I have for years , on one outing with Motty I would estimate 4000 or more were using a large field and another on some of my bean stubble I saw a good 2-3000 , only last week I saw a estimated 2000 on a smallish maize cover , so there does not seem to be a shortage in these parts.

I've never seen that many in a week, let alone one field.

 

I seem to be having a pigeon-imposed closed season at the moment, but if the numbers are there then they will need controlling, but if there aren't large numbers and they aren't causing major problems then I don't see any problem with leaving them until harvest.

[Catamong]

I think you find that is more a case of birds just moving on , not that there being wiped out , there numbers are up year on year out , just pulled this from the

 

British Trust for Ornithology

 

Woodpigeons have increased by nearly two thirds in the latest decade, with populations doing particularly well in areas such as south-east England and East Anglia. This population boom appears to be due to altered agricultural practices. Changing from spring-sown to autumn-sown cereals, and the introduction of oil seed rape have led to green foods being available all year round, leading to improved overwinter survival and a longer breeding season. The increase in Woodpigeons has been reflected in the results of the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch, and it is now one of the most commonly reported birds in the UK’s gardens.

 

KEEP SHOOTING EM

 

What a load of tosh..?

 

Are they seriously suggesting that a flock of 500 birds feeding on a field 10 years ago would now number around 850..?

 

Are they also seriously suggesting that more Autumn drillings lead to more pigeons being born, during the Autumn period when natural food on stubbles etc is at it's most abundant..?

 

Do they seriously believe that Oil Seed rape has only had an influence on pigeon feeding patterns for the last 10 years...?.um hello.??.where have you been..?? the birds around here have been feeding on it since the early 70's..?

 

The only bit they've got right is that more birds are being recorded in peoples back gardens, that's a definite change in their behaviour.

 

The fact is that in these parts, numbers have been in steady decline, I base my opinion on over 40 years experience of shooting pigeons, not numbers recorded in suburbia via a dubious BTO survey by schoolboy twitchers gazing out of their bedroom windows, who couldn't tell the difference between a Wood Pigeon and a Racer.

 

We've had a couple of hard Winters over the last 10 years, with prolonged snow cover, birds numbers dropped significantly on both occasions, they left for God knows where, and a lot never came back, fact.

 

Cat.

[The Beater]

Yes I stop mid April to mid July. The woody is a beautiful bird, not a flying rat or vermin. It is an agricultural pest.

[misser]

I stop end of March to August....agree with the beater....beautiful bird and probably the most sporting IMHO.....each to their own......

[marsh man]

I go along with the less pigeons about observers , I can go back to the late 60s when peas would produce pigeons from the time they were drilled to when they were cut plus a week or two on top of that when the pea stubble was put in heaps to dry out.

 

Now , the drilling , growing , cutting and stubble is nigh on a non event , now you might get a decent year say 1 in 10 where in the past it would be the other way round , this year the wood shooting didn't show a double figure return , and the guns have been turned off on the rape fields.

 

I am only referring to a 15 mile radius from mine , fenboy and Motty are 70 to 80 miles up the coast and they are seeing big numbers ,so it might be more of a region problem than a national one .

[shootnfish]

I shoot right through only if there's a lot about and there a problem, but as marsh man said I also think there has been less around this area last 4 or 5 years. Before that nearly every rape field I drove past would have pigeons on but now a lot are hardly touched. Don't know if its to do with the mild winters or not, but even the peas and spring rape don't seem as good. But who knows hopefully this year will be different.

[Scully]

We mainly only shoot them at harvest time because any other time of the year the numbers just simply aren't there. We'll get the odd one or two feeding on clover, but nothing worth setting up a hide for. All other times we mostly shoot crows and ferals coming onto farmers feed in outbuildings. It can be quite amusing to shout across to mate after picking up one of his birds, 'Hey, this one's got a ring on its leg', but he's stopped believing me now.