These birds cannot be decoyed.

[JDog]

I have just returned from an hour in a roosting wood. Of the ten birds I picked nine were full of Ivy berries, the other had wheat from a feed ride in it's crop.

For those of you struggling to find pigeons on rape it may be worthwhile looking for Ivy covered hedgerows to find a flight line (as opposed to decoying them).

[the hitman]

Jd

 I have been watching a line of pigeons going to a big patch of hawthorns which are hanging full of red haw berries.

they are using a line of trees en-route to the berries, so that’s where I will be on Saturday hopefully.

[marsh man]

They talk about colder weather coming in from tomorrow so I wouldn't have thought the berries will hang about much longer if we get an influx of migrants come to the u k.

Flight lines are far and few between around these parts , there might be a few going down to some isolated fields deep in the marshes and with no disturbance that's where they will stay , so even seeing a few would be nice let alone a well used flight line .

[Fisheruk]

Yes, they are all over our Ivy covered Sycamore 

[pigeon controller]

Driving to the stables yesterday I saw a flock of pigeons on holly bushes, there must have been fifty plus birds. Last weeks birds on rape were heading to the oaks in the field. We were shooting under the oaks.

[sako751sg]

I had an hour out yesterday and ended with 13 and all still gleaning the stibble.Great conditions but made shooting very had.

We are white now and still blowing a gale so will have a crack later at a few sitty trees.

[Old Boggy]

On 7 December 2017 at 16:34, JDog said:

I have just returned from an hour in a roosting wood. Of the ten birds I picked nine were full of Ivy berries, the other had wheat from a feed ride in it's crop.

For those of you struggling to find pigeons on rape it may be worthwhile looking for Ivy covered hedgerows to find a flight line (as opposed to decoying them).

I too had a short session on Saturday afternoon in a small wood and picked up just 8 pigeons, most of which had ivy berries and a couple had a small amount of rape in their crops.

Regarding JDog's post title 'These birds cannot be decoyed', I seem to recall an earlier post by Ditchman who advocated the use of a flapper lofted up against an ivy covered tree to decoy them into the trees. I only hope that he would return to the forum to elaborate as to how successful it was for him. I'm sure any response from Ditchman would be both entertaining and most welcome.

Has anyone else tried it and was it worth the effort ?

OB

[ShropshireSam]

On 11/12/2017 at 09:46, Old Boggy said:

I too had a short session on Saturday afternoon in a small wood and picked up just 8 pigeons, most of which had ivy berries and a couple had a small amount of rape in their crops.

Regarding JDog's post title 'These birds cannot be decoyed', I seem to recall an earlier post by Ditchman who advocated the use of a flapper lofted up against an ivy covered tree to decoy them into the trees. I only hope that he would return to the forum to elaborate as to how successful it was for him. I'm sure any response from Ditchman would be both entertaining and most welcome.

Has anyone else tried it and was it worth the effort ?

OB

I had a couple of sessions on ivy last year in late Feb.   Fastened a flapper to lofting poles with a long wire down to the battery on the floor and placed at top of an ivy covered tree trunk.  Helped to pull more birds in range and had two good afternoons of about 20 birds.  Need to take care raising the flapper by supporting against the tree while you add each section of the pole.

[Westley]

5 hours ago, ShropshireSam said:

I had a couple of sessions on ivy last year in late Feb.   Fastened a flapper to lofting poles with a long wire down to the battery on the floor and placed at top of an ivy covered tree trunk.  Helped to pull more birds in range and had two good afternoons of about 20 birds.  Need to take care raising the flapper by supporting against the tree while you add each section of the pole.

That brings back memories. I used to do that with the old WAGBI/SEMARK cord operated flapper in the 70's. I taped plastic windscreen washer tubing every foot or so down the lofting poles (top 4 sections) to stop the cord from fouling the branches and getting tangled up. A few quick pulls on the cord,  wings flapped, pigeons turned and came in. Used to work a treat.