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Anyone seeing pigeons on the peas yet


lakeside1000
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I have acres and acres of peas which I drive around every few days, most fields are now in week 2 after drilling and at last the leaf buds are starting to show above ground,

They will be green in the next few days, Weather permitting, but so far apart from a few rooks passing over there has not been a pigeon in sight.

I found another enthusiast the other day on one field with decoys displayed, he had taken 10 but he was under a weak flight line along a row of trees, I dont think they were feeding but were foolish enough to come and have a look at the decoys.

Weather for the weekend is cold wet and windy so I wont be out again until early next week, maybe things will change once the green is showing. lets hope so anyway :yes::yes:

Edited by lakeside1000
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The fields of peas we have to go at took a good week or two for the pigeons to show any interest which they did on several of the fields...bags of 71,48,63. The 48 was following just missing out on first go at a field with a lot of traffic, they shot around 90 a few days before.

Pigeons have disappeared now though!

Edited by Wilts#Dave
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The fields of peas we have to go at took a good week or two for the pigeons to show any interest which they did on several of the fields...bags of 71,48,63. The 48 was following just missing out on first go at a field with a lot of traffic, they shot around 90 a few days before.

Pigeons have disappeared now though!

 

With those numbers shouldn't your location read 'South of Birmingham?'

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No peas drilled here, land prepared all ready just no drilling as yet. I don't expect the pigeons to show any interest till the peas chit and are an inch or so tall going by previous years.

Will be out for a look see tomorrow but it seems pigeons are on clover and a few on poor rape patches as with Cranfield.

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I've been watching two fields of peas at all times of the day with no apparent activity on either since they were drilled. They peas now 2 to 3 inches tall and there are more pigeons in my garden (well fed and protected) than in the surrounding fields.

 

However, I did hear my first turtle dove of the summer whilst supping a pint in my local pub garden on Saturday. Lovely !

 

Cannot wait for my next foray after Columba Palumbus, but fear that won't now be until harvest. Will still be watching those pea fields though and ever hopeful.

 

OB

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My nearest Pea fields are now five minutes away from where I now live , since they were drilled over three weeks ago I haven't seen any pigeons on the fields feeding , although the last couple of nights I have walked the dog around the headlands I have put out several pigeons out of the surrounding trees .

 

Going by the last few years, shooting pigeons on drilled peas is now a thing of the past ( well for me anyway ) and I cant see it ever getting back to it once was . now I don't expect to shoot any numbers until they are a few inches high .

 

I think the heading could be Anyone seeing pigeons , over the weekend I have travelled all around Norfolk and the most I have seen was in our local park , things will improve , or so we hope :yes:

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Yesterday I looked at three fields miles apart all of which had been drilled with peas. Despite there being lots of peas on top I never saw a pigeon.

 

On one football pitch in Scu*thorpe I counted sixty pigeons.

Edited by JDog
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I predict we will see good/big bags of pigeons being shot over peas this month and next.

For once Motty I totally agree with you.

 

Pigeons have to feed on something in May and the drillings will be long gone, so will the buds and much of the clover.

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We have 200 acres of peas to shoot over and its been awful.

Same last year see pigeons but when you set up few shots and they just vanish!

Used loads of strategic rope bangers to keep them off fields we are not shooting over, gas guns and scary eyes etc are out but decoy NO WAY.

 

Years ago we shot peas from drilling right thro to cultivation after cutting, think those days are long gone!!

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We have 200 acres of peas to shoot over and its been awful.

Same last year see pigeons but when you set up few shots and they just vanish!

Used loads of strategic rope bangers to keep them off fields we are not shooting over, gas guns and scary eyes etc are out but decoy NO WAY.

 

Years ago we shot peas from drilling right thro to cultivation after cutting, think those days are long gone!!

But WHY are those days long gone??

Peas used to be the Holy Grail, you would sell your soul to get a pea permission but today it's useless. I know the peas are so much better drilled, you rarely see loose peas up top, but as masmiffy says, you used to be able to shoot over them when they were sprouting and flowering. I remember one permission where we had to stop shooting once they podded, for fear of shot getting in the final product.

Pea stubble did work for me a few years back but that's it.

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I have been keeping an eye of my 3 pea fields and over the last few days they have just started to sprout. . No pigeons when they were drilled , but yesterday afternoon there were a few (40) on one of the fields. They were in a dip in the field to keep out of the cold north east wind. The wind held so set up in the same place this morning result - not a pigeon seen. After an hour I fired a shot into the air to see if I could get any pigeons moving out of the woods surrounding the field. Result about a hundred fled away down wind never to be seen again. Stuck it out for another 3 hours and only a handfull of pigeons were seen in the far distance and none even looked like giving me a chance. Had a chat with the farmer on the way home this afternoon and he agreed that the number of pigeons had plumited on the farm. Despite having 20 fields of rape he never felt the need to put any gas guns out all winter, not enough birds to do enough damage to worry about. All my few winter pigeons have come from the woods not the arable\clover fields.

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Did the rounds again yesterday but still no birds, even where peas are 3 inches and rising they just do not seem interested, still a few hitting the stunted rape but even there they were more content to stay in the trees out of the bitter north easterly that seems to have been blowing along this coast for several days now,

Temperature yesterday was around 8 degrees with a wind chill as well, I sat in the hide for a couple of hours but began to lose consciousness after that, even with many layers of normally wind proof clothing, most of which I use out on the marshes waiting for winter geese,

I struggled to get my gear into the car, I had to sit for 10 minutes with the heater on full before I could drive home, and this is May, could do with some pigeon shooting in southern Spain,

Anyway I did manage to get 4 before I nearly froze so not all bad.

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About 5 hours on a farm once one of the best pigeon prospects around here. Like Lakeside above I found it extremely cold, perishing but managed to get tucked in to a bit shelter so was able to stick it out. Back to the sun and wind blowing across the front my face was scarlet with wind burn come evening. The result five shots for three pigeon, most likely missed another four opportunities as it is difficult to keep alert when things are so slow. Bonus was my ,'new' seven year old untrained cocker learned a little patience sat there idle for half a day.

 

Blackpowder

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