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Where are all the pigeons?


Longbower
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Isn't that pretty well what I was saying under the Fenland Pigeon topic - no pigeons in Leicestershire and was "shot down". My inexperienced eyes couldn't see them whilst others claiming daily bags of 20-50. Additionally I needed more permissions to find them and need to be travelling about all the time. Well Balotelli might just have got it right. There's none about in my neck of the woods and a lot of other places too by the sound of it. Maybe East Anglia might have them. If so, you're lucky.

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There are birds about in the vale of Belvoir where I live but not massive numbers like I saw in March. My permissions are mostly still covered in maize for biofuel and it’s 6ft high with the odd stubble field with a few birds on them and hedgerows but no sign of flocks feeding. 
 

Will have to see what happens when the maize is cut. At the moment I am restricted to hanging about by the river seeing if a duck comes in. 

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One particular permission of mine is brilliant year after year for crows but very few pigeon however this year for the first time since I've been shooting it ( aprox 40 yrs) there are actually quite a few descent size flocks of pigeon coming in to feed. You just never know 😁😁

3 minutes ago, rapid .25 said:

One particular permission of mine is brilliant year after year for crows but very few pigeon however this year for the first time since I've been shooting it ( aprox 40 yrs) there are actually quite a few descent size flocks of pigeon coming in to feed. You just never know 😁😁

And the crop hasn't been altered either.

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13 hours ago, Balotelli said:

Isn't that pretty well what I was saying under the Fenland Pigeon topic - no pigeons in Leicestershire and was "shot down". My inexperienced eyes couldn't see them whilst others claiming daily bags of 20-50. Additionally I needed more permissions to find them and need to be travelling about all the time. Well Balotelli might just have got it right. There's none about in my neck of the woods and a lot of other places too by the sound of it. Maybe East Anglia might have them. If so, you're lucky.

You can say "there are no pigeons in Leicestershire," but that is simply not the case. You obviously haven't checked all the fields etc in Leicestershire. 

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1 hour ago, motty said:

You can say "there are no pigeons in Leicestershire," but that is simply not the case. You obviously haven't checked all the fields etc in Leicestershire. 

Might be different in Norfolk. But all the posts above are saying the same thing - no pigeons and that includes Leicestershire. I do quite a lot of driving and I can assure you that field after field of all the main pigeon attractants are barren. Believe me.

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15 minutes ago, Balotelli said:

Might be different in Norfolk. But all the posts above are saying the same thing - no pigeons and that includes Leicestershire. I do quite a lot of driving and I can assure you that field after field of all the main pigeon attractants are barren. Believe me.

Posts from a very small sample of people means very little. I have seen plenty in areas where I shoot. Even if I didn't see any, I would be sure that there would be many big congregations of pigeons in other parts of my county. There is absolutely no way that you know what the pigeon situation is in the whole of Leicestershire!

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Perhaps the clue is in the name " Wood Pigeon". over the past few weekends I have looked for birds on the stubbles and with a very few exceptions seen nothing. Of the two hundred plus shot last weekend a quick straw poll when I was laying them out concluded that they had been feeding on Clover, turnip tops, peas, beans, acorns,wheat and barley.

Now the city woodies are still feeding on acorns in my garden and the parks , elderberrys on the canal, bread on bird tables.

If they decide to feed out of roost first light, sit in trees via the heat of the day and feed at dusk you may not see them but they are still there.

During my working life I did average some years 48K miles a year and saw mimimal feeding birds off the motorways with a very few exceptions. I commuted Brum to Oxford for two years dawn and dusk and only found one consistent feeding farm which I shoot now.

The feeding table is vast at this time of the year and the birds choose one farm and not others for some reason. Its like flightlines we had a theory that they follow the lay lines as on some farm we have shot over thirty years rows of trees have been removed and the birds still follow the old edge of the field??

I still unable to post or reply via my steam driven iPad so you will not see much content from me in the future.

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On 16/09/2020 at 20:08, Longbower said:

Ok , I have three enormous fields of cut Barley, bailed and free from machinery, No Pigeons?

I drive a private school mini bus , through the country side of Cheshire , many many fields have been cut , and are in stubble. No Pigeons.

Crows and Seagulls in abundance , but no pigeons !

Have you lot shot them all?

they will be somewhere trust me maybe off your route or a few miles this way or that way but they will be in the area

 

On 17/09/2020 at 14:23, Balotelli said:

Might be different in Norfolk. But all the posts above are saying the same thing - no pigeons and that includes Leicestershire. I do quite a lot of driving and I can assure you that field after field of all the main pigeon attractants are barren. Believe me.

as motty says just because people are not  seeing them on a certain patch  doesn't mean they are  not there 

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Spraying off maize stubbles this morning, only harvested yesterday. There were about 100 birds down when I started but sat here now, can’t see a single bird but they are out there. Heads up if you have maize on your permissions as they have started harvesting for digesters but the opportunity to shoot will be very short as this will be cultivated and drilled next week.

48378DD7-B5EC-4172-836D-56DAFF522FB0.jpeg

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On 19/09/2020 at 16:45, mossy835 said:

i have 2 farms with maize not cut yet,will see what comes in. so far no pigeons about.

Be better when it's ripped up. 

IMG-20200510-WA0001~2.jpg

Just now, mellors said:

Be better when it's ripped up. 

IMG-20200510-WA0001~2.jpg

Plenty getting on the drilling now the stubbles are going. 

IMG-20200510-WA0002~4.jpg

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gstkking@aol.com   hi members,  very few  pigeon on the fields at the moment. trees and bushes full of food this year[even acorns about]  that and the warm weather pigeon staying in the trees.  lets see if they get on the rape this winter[next spring] nearly all of it didnt grow in my county this year  beetle ate it.  

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