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Nothing Flighting


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With the hour change I did not pick up DB till 09.00 and on my journey out we saw no birds flighting at all which is strange as the roosts in the city are prolific. We did see birds feeding on clover on the edge of the roads and on the central grass areas of the dual carriage ways. We had a couple of rape fields we wanted to view and expected them to have some birds down but the more we drove out to the extremes of our permissions the less birds we found. So we covered it all again and still found not enough birds to justify setting up. We had seen twenty odd birds down on some clover next to the rape and we went back to view it again and they had gone. We covered all our normal rape fields and found nothing worth shooting and the time was getting on and we were getting to the point of settling for twenty bird on the clover. So we racked our brains for any farm that had seeding to do and remembered one small ten acre field of plough last week. We made our way to the field only to find it seeded last week and not a bird on it. Now this farmer has had us going on his rape this year constantly calling us out after his local guy has shot it the day before. So we were not realy interested with the rape as it has been overshot. As we drove down the lane we saw the local shooter in his Defender parked in the lane, so we had a chat and he said he had not shot it for four weeks as they just lift off and do not return. " are there birds down today "?  no nothing. As we were talking to him I noticed a few birds passing high heading for the rape in question, DB had seen them also , so we said we would carry on up to the farm and see when the field was seeded. As we drove into the farm the farmers son called us over and he said that he had disturbed a load of birds off the small rape field this morning, So we agreed to have a look and shoot if they were still there. As we drove across the grass field to get to the rape we pulled up to view the field and noticed the birds were on the clover next to the rape and the rape was in flower and approx a meter tall all round the edges of the field. As we scanned the rape we could see birds skimming the top of the tall rape and dropping into the centre of the field. We drove to the edge of the rape and sounded the horn and approx one hundred birds lifted out of the rape. This will do!!!

So we set up with the wind off our backs on an edge close to a thin section of rape , we but the magnet in the tall rape for movement and two flyers in small clearings within the tall rape and eight fresh birds on spikes in the tram lines. We were set up and ready at 13.30 the first birds in came very low and skimmed the growing rape, these two shots lifted approx one hundred birds from the surrounding trees and they kept a constant supply of birds to the decoys to the point that we never picked up any birds just kept shooting as they kept returning and dropped into the rape at 17.30 it just switched off and we started to pick up out of the rape We picked up eightyfour pigeons which was good for four hours shooting and worth all the miles we had travelled. 

 

 

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84 Pigeons

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My Saturdays night medication have just arrived more or less bang on time ☺️ , the more I read I was beginning to think the two hot shots had finally been beaten in obtaining a bag of pigeons , but no , reading on it all came good at the last resort , Well done to you both , you were certainly a better bet in getting a good bag of pigeons than trying to find a winner on the Grand National :good:

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3 hours ago, Clodhopper said:

As  MM said, I thought it was going to be a report of failure but you pulled it off again. In our area drillings have been frustrating, rape still has some birds and an increasing number seem to be in the hedgerows looking for, I asssume, hawthorn buds.

Over the past three weeks we've seen birds on Beech Buds, hawthorn and cherry blossom but not in numbers that would warrant shooting under the General Licence. 

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7 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Over the past three weeks we've seen birds on Beech Buds, hawthorn and cherry blossom but not in numbers that would warrant shooting under the General Licence. 

I have just got back in the house after checking Larsen traps. On my rounds I noticed a few dropping into the corner of some well established rape if enough brownie points are accrued today then tomorrow afternoon may find tucked in the nearby hedgerow.

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29 minutes ago, JDog said:

Good result PC.

Not much flighting generally means that they are in the woods or hedges eating buds.

Yes I said to the wife this morning the clue is in the name, WOOD Pigeon, as she had been out on Saturday with her friend and they made to comment " How do they find birds each weekend "  as they could not see any birds flighting during there tour of the garden centres.

Thanks for your comments.

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