A lot of looking last week.

[JDog]

There are pigeons all over the place round here at the moment. Two hundred on a game strip, a hundred on another game cover, two hundred on one field of rape and several lots of a hundred or so on other rape fields. I have not had any confidence that I could shoot any of those lots successfully which is why I have driven round watching but not shooting.

A cold and wet day on Friday with Clodhopper confirmed my suspicions that local roost shooting was making these groups of birds very jumpy.

Saturday morning was very cold and wet and windy. I had lots of options including going back to bed after walking the dog which I did. Then there was the newly arrived pallet of kiln dried hardwood which needed stacking which I opted out of. Various household chores stared me in the eye and all were ignored in favour of going out into the cold and wet to shoot pigeons.

There is one outward bound flight line from local woods which I watched quite a lot in the week. In the wind the line took a snaking path low over the fields and over a small spinney before continuing another mile or so to a sheltered valley where they sat up in another wood before dropping down onto the adjacent rape field. I chose to stand freezing my balls off in that small spinney. Fifty pigeons approached in one lot and I shot a very nice double followed by two singles. Then the wheels came off. These pigeons were difficult (I would say that wouldn’t I?) and I got progressively colder and my shooting was not very good but I had an enjoyable hour and a half picking eleven pigeons for a lot of shots.

[Wooder]

well done for getting out JDog!   i opted for beer and Rugby this Saturday instead of roost shooting as it was the second wet Saturday on the trot, got soaked last week for 0 !

[Clodhopper]

You obviously adore being out in the cold and rain.

 

I have just got in after an early start. I sat up in a Fir plantation to intercept the birds coming out of the main roosting wood. I was in wait by 7 and home by 9 only shot half a dozen but they were lovely in the gusting wind.

[marsh man]

Last week I was out looking most days and I can honestly say I have seen more pigeons during last week than I have seen for several years , seeing them is a lot different from shooting them , although it is still rewarding knowing there are a lot of pigeons in the area.

About 3 / 4 weeks ago I went on this particular rape and shot 18 , knowing the field well and with other rape fields near by ,I knew once the supply from a nearby wood was finished that was more or less it , as the last hour I was there I hardly saw a pigeon so I called it a day .

Last Sunday I done a diversion on the way home to go and have a look on the same field , when I pulled up I could see the trees on the other side of the field was full of pigeons , so I took the dog over for a walk to see if they had been on the rape , walking towards them I could a lot on the next doors neighbours ploughed field , when I say a lot I couldn't believe exactly how many there were , but well over four figures I would have thought .

So getting home I took some pigeons out of the freezer for a go on Monday , by the morning the decoys were still hard and with cold showers I decided to leave it till Tuesday , with rain forecast all day and a dryer spell on Wednesday I then left it another day . with checking I hadn't forgot anything I was on my way a little after nine , pulling up beside the field I fully expected to see pigeons cutting across the field , cutting a long story short there was nothing to be seen anywhere , I thought the farm manager had put a gas gun on so I walked over to have a look , no gas gun , no foot prints or any signs someone had beaten me to it .

As I was walking back a little four wheel drive that looked like a golfing buggy pulled onto the track and it was the farm manager who was going to put a gas gun on the field , I told him the amount I saw Sunday and he saw them Monday and he said there must have been getting on towards 2000 , while we were yarning you could a huge flock lifting now and again on his neighbours a good half a mile away and that's where they were .

Since then I have seen a lot on beet tops and other rape fields , so at least we have got a lot of pigeons but like I say , having a lot and shooting a lot don't always go according to plan .

 

[pigeon controller]

Well done JDog for being out, we have very few pigeons locally and those are flocking. We would normally pick up a flight in the morning out of the city but we are seeing nothing. The acorn and Ivy crop has been tremendous and the birds seem to have decided to roost out in the country not the city. My concern is they will stay and move onto the buds without hitting the rape. We are also seeing them on clover in local parks, which is crazy for this time of the year.

[Konnie]

i know sunday is a day of rest and family day but used to find decoying on cover strips on sunday could be productive after they had been kept moving the night before by roost shooting,

[yickdaz]

well good to hear there are others who go out in bad weather, I thought I was totally insane for shooting in the high winds and hail storms on sunday I couldn't feel my hands and my face was frozen all for 18  lol