Nationwide pigeon poulations

[redleg in kale]

I definitely think the numbers are dropping in the area that I shoot, which by the way is the same as yickdaz even shooting 1 or 2 of the same farms , my opinion is this has been gradual decline over the years in this area ,we can still go out on winter rape and shoot 40s 60 s odd hundred when conditions allow but its getting harder to find the pigeons ,not 10 mile away I have one farm that has 100acres of rape during last winter I didnt shoot more than 75 pigeon all winter on this farm since combining the rape not even bothered setting up on the rape stubble nothing about ,the pheasants on this farm did more damage to the rape than pigeon,the estates that's local to my area have always done the organised roost shooting at the end of the game shooting every wood big or small would have guns in and it would last for 4-6 weeks every saturday up to 10 yrs ago they would last for 6 weeks, now your lucky if the guns will stick it out for 3 consecutive Saturdays for lack of pigeon,thats my opinion yickdaz a bit different and both shooting around the same area.

[hawkfanz]

im in the same area as redlag and yickdaz and i see the same amout of birds as usual,i dont shoot the same perms as above but notice activity around the area when either shooting or just dog walking,maybe its because im retired and am about various midweek days when others are working,that i see these things,but i dont see a decline at all.

[dougall]

Been out and about in last few days.........Brighton area saw thousands on cut wheat.......Wlitshire yesterday @ Amesbury loads.......at home W Sussex nr Horsham I would've said probably a little down until last 2 weeks when have shot over 100 cartridges each time have gone out.......which is a lot more than last 5 years......the pigeons have just 'arrived' with harvest and I have no idea where from....so I do wonder if they are a little more transient than used to be.....overall would guess populations over last 10 years are fairly similar/stable.Only real surprise is how few young ones are about....

[mossy835]

as you said the young ones are not about.this time last year there were a lot more.

[yickdaz]

I definitely think the numbers are dropping in the area that I shoot, which by the way is the same as yickdaz even shooting 1 or 2 of the same farms , my opinion is this has been gradual decline over the years in this area ,we can still go out on winter rape and shoot 40s 60 s odd hundred when conditions allow but its getting harder to find the pigeons ,not 10 mile away I have one farm that has 100acres of rape during last winter I didnt shoot more than 75 pigeon all winter on this farm since combining the rape not even bothered setting up on the rape stubble nothing about ,the pheasants on this farm did more damage to the rape than pigeon,the estates that's local to my area have always done the organised roost shooting at the end of the game shooting every wood big or small would have guns in and it would last for 4-6 weeks every saturday up to 10 yrs ago they would last for 6 weeks, now your lucky if the guns will stick it out for 3 consecutive Saturdays for lack of pigeon,thats my opinion yickdaz a bit different and both shooting around the same area.

depends whereabouts you shoot we shoot mainly around warrington and Cheshire areas and the odd local farm

[HIDENSEEK]

I have a permission in Cheshire which has been below average for numbers for the last 2/3 years, but in the last 4/5 weeks the population has increased dramaticaly, with large numbers of birds mainly in largish flocks. Why they are in flocks this time of year I find strange, they're very skittish and even when not disturbed don't settle to feed in one spot for long. No, I don't believe these have come from abroad, I think they've just come from someone elses patch.The area is shot hard, so that may explain why they're cautious of decoys. Contrary to other reports I've shot a lot of young birds this year. This permission has oats, barley and wheat, and the wheat has just been cut this week. No big bags as yet, but the birds have wanted the standing crops rather than oat or barley stubble, and as I hate leaving unpicked birds I've been very selective with my shots. I live in hope of getting a good do there before the stubbles gone.

[pigeon controller]

I've stated this before but as I live in the middle of the ancient Forest Of Arden which was a vast area of forest and the birds that I shoot are Wood Pigeons we have always had a regular stock of birds being static or migrating. We have one farm which used to have a healthy flock on clover all year which we have not shot for three years due to it being organic ?? Next to it are two large farms of rape with twenty plus gas guns, the only way I can get a bag on these is to shoot with the Hushpower and decoy birds spooked by the gas guns. Bunny_Blaster shoots the same area and checks weekly that he can't find the birds but they are nomadic and can be ten miles further out. I see loads of birds in parks and on roadside verges but not in flocks but if you did a count you would be surprised at the number.

We have more shooters, gas guns and rockets to contend with now which all spook the birds also reports on this forum and others of birds not decoying. This may be due to spooking on magnets and poor presentation of decoys as you can imagine you set your wings to glide in to a feeding flock to be then shot at and missed is going to make you wary in the future. Acording to my records over the past fifteen years my average is between 7 and 10 K so it would appear that the birds are still out and about you just have to find them.

[widgeon man]

this year one estate I have permission on along with all the other estate helpers/loaders/beaters has been devoid of pigeon. Lads have scraped some 50's/60's together. But they have not been in their normal numbers. Yet 4 miles away I have shot 1000 pigeon in 6 visits on two adjacent fields? The estate was in mainly wheat and I thought would produce good rsults. I normally manage a couple 100 bird days off the wheat here.

[muncher]

I've stated this before but as I live in the middle of the ancient Forest Of Arden which was a vast area of forest and the birds that I shoot are Wood Pigeons we have always had a regular stock of birds being static or migrating. We have one farm which used to have a healthy flock on clover all year which we have not shot for three years due to it being organic ?? Next to it are two large farms of rape with twenty plus gas guns, the only way I can get a bag on these is to shoot with the Hushpower and decoy birds spooked by the gas guns. Bunny_Blaster shoots the same area and checks weekly that he can't find the birds but they are nomadic and can be ten miles further out. I see loads of birds in parks and on roadside verges but not in flocks but if you did a count you would be surprised at the number.

We have more shooters, gas guns and rockets to contend with now which all spook the birds also reports on this forum and others of birds not decoying. This may be due to spooking on magnets and poor presentation of decoys as you can imagine you set your wings to glide in to a feeding flock to be then shot at and missed is going to make you wary in the future. Acording to my records over the past fifteen years my average is between 7 and 10 K so it would appear that the birds are still out and about you just have to find th

Strange how things differ I'm not bothered about gas guns as the birds get used to them and when decoying they are not bothered buy the bangs, I do agree that rotarys and poor set ups make local birds very wary . There was a pea grower around my area that let people from all over the country to shoot his pea fields, which he rented far and wide. Every field often had at least one person shooting regardless of pigeons and sometimes one shooter would pack up and another set up straight after he left , everyone used a rotary ,,the result for myself was that I never used a rotary for several years as all it did was scare the pigeons.

[ditchman]

Strange how things differ I'm not bothered about gas guns as the birds get used to them and when decoying they are not bothered buy the bangs, I do agree that rotarys and poor set ups make local birds very wary . There was a pea grower around my area that let people from all over the country to shoot his pea fields, which he rented far and wide. Every field often had at least one person shooting regardless of pigeons and sometimes one shooter would pack up and another set up straight after he left , everyone used a rotary ,,the result for myself was that I never used a rotary for several years as all it did was scare the pigeons.

 

 

i can agree with that..............for years i only used a manual flapper....it was deadly...........i stopped using it last year and have gone to a good quality cradle and rotary...and my sport has picked up again....

[dead eye alan]

Strange how things differ I'm not bothered about gas guns as the birds get used to them and when decoying they are not bothered buy the bangs, I do agree that rotarys and poor set ups make local birds very wary . There was a pea grower around my area that let people from all over the country to shoot his pea fields, which he rented far and wide. Every field often had at least one person shooting regardless of pigeons and sometimes one shooter would pack up and another set up straight after he left , everyone used a rotary ,,the result for myself was that I never used a rotary for several years as all it did was scare the pigeons.

 

Yep same here for the first time in 3-4 years i'm using magnets again, as for young'uns shot a lot less this year than usually.

[marsh man]

 

Yep same here for the first time in 3-4 years i'm using magnets again, as for young'uns shot a lot less this year than usually.

One day during the week we had heavy rain and for me the stubble was to wet for me to drive over so I left the magnet in the motor and just took the basics as some bales were still on the field .

 

After setting up with a few dead ones and flexicoys on cradles I was pretty confident I had got it right , how wrong I was , I had pigeons coming past at 60 / 70 yds and never looked like they had seen the decoys , I walked out to see if any thing was shining from the bright sun or if things didn't look right but to me it looked fine , o k , I did get the odd one that came straight in and managed to shoot one or two that came past . but to tell yer the truth , I think , or I know I would have got more shooting with a magnet out.

 

Yesterday I went on another stubble field nearby to the one just mentioned and this time I used a magnet well out from a tree they like using and yes I did get one or two came into the decoys but the bulk of my shooting was pigeons being attracted by the magnet but deciding to come to the tree instead of the decoy lay out giving me a nice bit of shooting and picking up 20 which is not a big bag but was made up of good sporting shots which I don't think I would have got if I didn't put the magnet out . alright , I know they don't come in to the decoys in tex book fashion but I am there for the sport and overall I think a magnet out , give or take , do give you more sport .

[motty]

One day during the week we had heavy rain and for me the stubble was to wet for me to drive over so I left the magnet in the motor and just took the basics as some bales were still on the field .

 

After setting up with a few dead ones and flexicoys on cradles I was pretty confident I had got it right , how wrong I was , I had pigeons coming past at 60 / 70 yds and never looked like they had seen the decoys , I walked out to see if any thing was shining from the bright sun or if things didn't look right but to me it looked fine , o k , I did get the odd one that came straight in and managed to shoot one or two that came past . but to tell yer the truth , I think , or I know I would have got more shooting with a magnet out.

 

Yesterday I went on another stubble field nearby to the one just mentioned and this time I used a magnet well out from a tree they like using and yes I did get one or two came into the decoys but the bulk of my shooting was pigeons being attracted by the magnet but deciding to come to the tree instead of the decoy lay out giving me a nice bit of shooting and picking up 20 which is not a big bag but was made up of good sporting shots which I don't think I would have got if I didn't put the magnet out . alright , I know they don't come in to the decoys in tex book fashion but I am there for the sport and overall I think a magnet out , give or take , do give you more sport .

What is 'text book fashion' in your opinion?

[ditchman]

Just an adendum to my first post

 

Driv up to Winterton this morning...cross country so as to avoid the holiday traffic..........there are bloody pigeons everywhere....not flocks ...but a lot of movement....so i stand by what i said original....birds are still about in the same numbers....but they do travel about and dont stick to one area....and if you are in an area that is not to their liking (for whatever reason)...then you shooting is going to suffer........

[marsh man]

What is 'text book fashion' in your opinion?

We are led to believe by doing decoying the way the experts tell us ,is to use whatever pattern is needed for the conditions on the day , weather it is a horse shoe , dog leg or a L shape and keep your killing zone clear so the pigeons are supposed to come to that zone when a shot is taken .

 

In reality , this never happen to me , my decoys are staggered and scattered in a half circle from 20 to 30 /35 yds from my hide with the magnet either right or left from the decoys depending on what way the wind is blowing , the object of my exercise is to get a pigeon in range to test what little skill I have with a shotgun and not try and decoy a pigeon coming into the same small patch time after time , I leave that to the expert decoyers which I am not a member of .

[bunnage]

I operate a voluntary close season on the pigeons, June , July , August . Perhaps others who notice a decline in numbers might consider it. All other species of birds are in decline, take the sparrow or starling, we used to see vast numbers of these , so why do we think the pigeon is going to be around in vast numbers forever ?

[kitchrat]

We are led to believe by doing decoying the way the experts tell us ,is to use whatever pattern is needed for the conditions on the day , weather it is a horse shoe , dog leg or a L shape and keep your killing zone clear so the pigeons are supposed to come to that zone when a shot is taken .

 

In reality , this never happen to me , my decoys are staggered and scattered in a half circle from 20 to 30 /35 yds from my hide with the magnet either right or left from the decoys depending on what way the wind is blowing , the object of my exercise is to get a pigeon in range to test what little skill I have with a shotgun and not try and decoy a pigeon coming into the same small patch time after time , I leave that to the expert decoyers which I am not a member of .

I suspect your skills with a shotgun are as well developed as your skills with the English language, which are well above average!!

[wymberley]

I operate a voluntary close season on the pigeons, June , July , August . Perhaps others who notice a decline in numbers might consider it. All other species of birds are in decline, take the sparrow or starling, we used to see vast numbers of these , so why do we think the pigeon is going to be around in vast numbers forever ?

I'm doing that this year with the aid of the pigeon.

 

I suspect your skills with a shotgun are as well developed as your skills with the English language, which are well above average!!

If a man's choice of decoy is any indication, he's far from being a fool.