Disappearing act.

[JDog]

Two lots of pigeons, one of 250-300 and the other lot of 400-450 have just disappeared over the weekend. They were on the rape. There has been drilling. Someone somewhere could be in for 'a bit of a do' as they say.

[Essex Keeper]

The big groups have moved of the rape on my shoot but we went out Sunday shot 35 in 2 hours all came in nicely

[Tony G]

Seeing a lot on short grass round my way at the minute The school field was covered yesterday Getting on the clover ?

[aga man]

Seeing a lot on short grass round my way at the minute The school field was covered yesterday Getting on the clover ?

Same here, sports pitches, golf courses etc good numbers on them. I reckon JDogs birds have mostly found some fresh drilling though.

 

 

A farmer told me of a fresh ploughed field last week, where 3-400 pigeons sat on the plough all day! gone again next day

[Cranfield]

A lot seem to be on clover and vetch in my area, it seems to be a bit early and a good crop this year.

[subsonicnat]

They hit the Rape hard for two days,stripped some area's,got permission to shoot it

The next day,they were all gone,not one on it,makes you think.

[dad]

i shot 2 rape fields at the week end for small results but on both locations there was hundreds of pigeons all going down to un cultivated land with some of last years wheat coming through and probably chick weed both on non perms they did come down to the deeks if they flew close enough but they spotted the ones on the ground from a great distance and went straight to them.

[Catamong]

I think you will find that a lot have moved on to cover crop strips that have now been cut after the end of the season.

 

It happens this way every year, they prefer maize over rape, and will stay on it until it's all gone.

 

I had a bag of 105 off a field of rape 2 weeks ago, last Sunday with a lot fewer birds about I only picked up 43, definitely fewer birds about, but they will be back, and as the rape grows strongly following a good dose of fert, they will be more concentrated on hitting the bare patches.

 

Cat.

[kitchrat]

I think you will find that a lot have moved on to cover crop strips that have now been cut after the end of the season.

 

It happens this way every year, they prefer maize over rape, and will stay on it until it's all gone.

 

I had a bag of 105 off a field of rape 2 weeks ago, last Sunday with a lot fewer birds about I only picked up 43, definitely fewer birds about, but they will be back, and as the rape grows strongly following a good dose of fert, they will be more concentrated on hitting the bare patches.

 

Cat.

Wow, how did you manage to get triple figures?? I have been watching 4 decent flocks for weeks, each hitting their own farm on a regular basis. However, they are as good as un-shootable. They feed as and when they fancy it, on whichever part of which field they fancy. They sit in the trees most of the day, then have a snack at random times. If you put them off, they will come back eventually, high and wary and don't fall for the decoy or magnet trick. If you try a speculative shot you might get 1 but the rest are gone for the day. If you leave them in the hope they will decoy better, they are gone for the day. The odd "Nobby-No-Mates" will decoy every now and then and pays the price. (If you are awake enough!)

The best I could do was a 22, took all day, just the odd "Nobby" and a few little bunches. The main body of birds gave me the finger!!

[Catamong]

Kitch,

 

I did a fair bit of recon to work out the "sweetspot" on the field that the birds favoured most, then put rope bangers out to stop them settling on the far end of the field.

 

The wind was in my favour, (probably a tad too strong to be fair) so I put the rotary only 10 yards in front of the hide, and right from the word go I knew it was going to be a good session as they were coming into the deeks as I was setting up, (always a good sign..!)

 

Not sure whether I will be back there this weekend as the number of birds on the field is now way down, I'm too damn old to be sat out most of the day for only half a dozen woodies, I'll have more fun on the clays..!

 

Cat.