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Pigeons, a bit like buses really


GingerCat
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So at 5am this morning I was up feeding the baby and cleaning the house, a sudden domestication of modern man? No, I was going shooting with Jdog and needed every brownie point I could get.

At 11 we met and were soon on my newly acquired permission of sugar beet.

The beet was a little short but a line exists and in a couple of weeks should provided some sport.

40 minutes or so in and we decided that breakfast and some scouting about was in order before trying Jdogs field of peas.

A local cafe beckoned before I followed "the dog" as he set off in pursuit of the elusive wold pigeon, an entertaining experience in itself as he pulls off the road and darts into hedges at the nearest whisper of a pigeon.

This wasnt to be an issue as I had earlier been warned that the field Jdog intended on shooting wouldn't be busy until 1530 so there was time to kill and fields to scout.

One thing quickly became apparent, he's not short of a few acres to shoot over. Try as we might the birds weren't quite as up for it as we were so we returned to a driled field of peas that we had shot over a couple of weeks ago, alas there was now a banger firmly in situ and the birds were busy flying over and into a large wood that's off limits with no way to get at them before they got there.

Jdog doesn't give up easily and hot tailed it over to the side of a hill a few minutes away that afforded sight of the mystical wold pea field I had heard so much about.

In about 5 or 10 minutes we saw pigeon after pigeon pile into a 10 foot square patch of peas. More pigeons than "the dog" had seen all day and more than I had seen in a week.

With a flight line like that in addition to another line that intersected it things were too good to waste;we were a little earlier than the stipulated 330pm but 20 minutes later we were set up and I found myself looking at that very same patch of peas only minutes earlier the birds had been fighting over; only they weren't there any more.

For about 2 hours we hardly fired a shot, I couldn't go home empty handed as the wife wouldnt let that drop and Jdog wasn't going anywhere either.

We stayed put, they had to come back, why wouldn't they? What could they possibly be eating? (Beans apparently, a shot pigeon had a crop full of them).

And then it started, at 5pm just like he said it would only a bit later than expected.

They came in every couple of minutes,mostly in threes just like buses.

They decoyed well to with groups of 3-5 closing their wings and dropping into the pattern a few feet short of the rotary.

Some took advantage of the wind and cut across the pattern and full speed while others followed the hedge before flaring and dropping in.

 

J "did I mention I'm a remarkably good shot also" Dog blasted some crackers and eventually I started to work the rust out and got into them a bit more.

At 1830 with a birds laying in the pattern,Jdog out of carts and me dangerously close to never being allowed out again we called it a day.

Birds were still coming in and i'm sure there was another good hour or so before the light would have got too low.

What an interesting day it had been too, we must have driven a good 20 miles, had a nice breakfast, discovered some flightlines on my new permission that I intend to shoot in the near future and not least had a great afternoon on that field of peas where pigeons arrive late and in 3's.

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