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First pigeon migrants and Barney's first outing.


JDog
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This morning at first light I saw the first migrants of the Autumn, a flock of about 50. This afternoon I saw another lot of freshly arrived birds flying aimlessly about and numbering about 200. How do I know they are migrants? Because for the last three months in the Wolds I have become acquainted with every pigeon within five miles of the house. I even know some by name.

Not needing to rush Barney into the shooting field I felt that at seventeen months I should at least fire a few shots near him to see his reaction. Being enclosed in a hide would not have been a good idea so I took him to a flight line, sat him five metres away from me in the hedge and proceeded to fire eight shots at passing pigeons. He never moved a muscle.

One pigeon fell into a Field maple and when I went to look for it and stuck my head in the lower branches there was a Barn Owl not one metre away. It was so close that it defecated onto my face as it flew away. When I made my hasty exit from the hedge two Jays were crossing the field thirty metres away. I shot the first one and missed the other.

These pigeons have found this season's bounty of Beech mast.

 

Pictures beech mast.jpg

Pictures Barney with pigeons..jpg

Pictures Jay.jpg

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When you say migrants pigeons , would you think they arrived from abroad or from up north ? , I use to see from small to large flocks of pigeons a lot later than this when we took out fishing parties , with our coastline poking well out into the north sea the flocks looked as if they were coming from the continent on the other side ,although I always thought they came down the east coast from Scotland when the weather tuned cold , nowadays with the unorthodox weather we have during the Winter months where we are sometimes colder than the hardy souls up north, I have now got my doubts .

Barney is looking good and will soon be ready for active service . 

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5 minutes ago, JDog said:

MM, I believe that they are from Scandinavia. I say this because the weather in the north of the UK has not been bad enough for pigeons to move on but in Scandinavia they have had snow and cold conditions. 

If that was the case , we could soon see an influx of Fieldfare's , Redwing's and of course Woodcock .

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On 08/10/2019 at 18:21, ditchman said:

nice post...nice pics ...nice dog.............not so nice having an owl poop in your face

 

i am seeing a lot of jays about at the moment ...more so than last year..

This time of year they are busy hiding their nuts, sat and watched a pair this week flying up and down the hedgerow, picking acorns and burying them along the margins.

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1 hour ago, old'un said:

This time of year they are busy hiding their nuts, sat and watched a pair this week flying up and down the hedgerow, picking acorns and burying them along the margins.

you tend to see them on country lanes at the moment where the traffic has crushed the acorns.....

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  • 4 weeks later...
26 minutes ago, Jim Neal said:

Barney's a gorgeous looking dog 😀 Is he a sprocker or just a heavily marked liver/white springer?

 

Or just really muddy?! 😀😀

Barney is a Sprocker, the product of two Sprockers.

The brown on his head and body is very strong. The rest of his body is roan.

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