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To Move or Not To Move


pigeon controller
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We started out in thick fog this morning with very little hope of shooting pigeons, as we drove out of the city it appeared to get thicker and we drove past rape fields with pigeons present and only visible by the silhouette's in the trees against the grey fog. We had an idea where we wanted to be today and we headed out in the fog. On our arrival nothing could be seen of the trees surrounding the field or the field its self. We could see the bright shape of the sun trying to burn off the fog. It was now 11.00 and the visibility was improving but nothing was flighting. We came across a rape field with a small spinney on its edge and it was full of birds which were dropping down into the rape. We believe these birds had come out of roost and landed at the first available rape. We walked them out of the trees and drove on to see the farmer, when we returned twenty minutes later they were back in the trees but not on the rape. We left them and drove round other rape fields in the area with nothing showing , so we decided to set up and hope for the best. We put out our normal twelve fresh birds eight on spikes two on the magnet and two flyers. It was now 12.30 and the first bird in came straight in as if on rails. DB had brought his auto and it jammed, by the time I realised it was a good distance from the pattern and I just threw the gun at it and it was stoned. So that was a good start to the day. The birds returned but very sparadic and also from the back of us wrong way to wind. I had a couple of very high crossers and they were very satisfying shots. We had periods of no action at all but any passing birds showed an interest in the pattern. We stopped shooting at 16.30 and picked up seventy pigeons and two corvids. 

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70 Pigeons two corvids

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Top marks PC you made a nice bag there. Are the flocks beginning to break up down your way yet? There are an awful lot of birds on the land I shoot but I have not really managed to get to grips with them this winter. The next few weeks  normally see a change in habits and better opportunities.

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30 minutes ago, Clodhopper said:

Top marks PC you made a nice bag there. Are the flocks beginning to break up down your way yet? There are an awful lot of birds on the land I shoot but I have not really managed to get to grips with them this winter. The next few weeks  normally see a change in habits and better opportunities.

They are tending to stay flocked at present but a week of mild weather will cause the sap to rise and they will be doing the mating dives into the pattern!!  

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Its always a dilemma whether to move if there is no action, I usually sit tight in the total belief that they will come, but so rarely do!! My problem is that now i'm in my 70's its a lot of effort to get the hide up and the decoy pattern out, so once i'm sitting comfy in the hide with my first coffee that's it for the day, and with no dog I have to do all the retrieves myself so I am soon too tired to care if they come or not!!

I was just the same when I used to do a lot of fishing, my best mate would give a swim 10 minutes, if no bite he would move to another peg, Not me, I would stick it out to the bitter end, but occasionally it would pay off . 

I guess i'm the eternal optimist always believing things will get better.

I was out yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours , the main flocks have now broken up, best I saw was a bunch of around 50 but a lot of 2's and 3's, I only managed 5 with 7 shots but even that was an improvement on the last two visits, I just had 3 lofters in an oak tree at the end of a small wood where they were coming to rest after foraging in the rape and a small field of new drilling's.

Had a run out this morning just to look around but very few birds about, with very thick ground mist there were several bunches just sitting up in the trees, but not many on the ground.

A local farmer just phoned to ask if I could give two large rape fields a look this week, so it looks like I will be busy again this week, no rest for the wicked but its so nice to be in demand, 

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