40 years of shooting and a 1st for me

[marsh man]

38 minutes ago, mgsontour said:

I have an old guy who has been shooting for a while ( must be one of the longest running members of BASC ( joined as a young boy and is 84 now )) and he recons they simply follow the grub during the year. He isn't a professional pigeoner like some on this forum but has done abit maybe some members can comment further as I personally find it interesting

Maybe some truth in the statement about weather movements and going where the food was before the onset of Oil Seed Rape , then when it was grown in most counties in the UK was their any reason for a pigeon to move out of one county into another when they both held a good food supply ?

 

[Gas seal]

Hi weather can move woodpigeon but it uses a lot of its energy to keep flying for a couple of hours in winter.I’ve seen large numbers sitting it out without feeding for a two days in freezing weather. A lot of the large flocks seen flying high in winter are forced to move on. When large numbers arrive at a field of rape they have to feed and it will be very difficult to move them. They have used a lot of energy to get to feed. The only way to move large flocks is to let them feed the next morning ,and when they go back to rest we use rockets and shotguns to keep them on the wing. They will fly like starlings ,fly high then go into the distance and gone.  Anyone seeing them wouldn’t know were they came from or going to. This happens a lot up and down the country. The urban woodpigeon are feeding more on rape more now. It must be because of the large numbers as the last food they turn to is rape. The woodpigeon shot by highlander shows how the urban woodpigeon survive better. When a flocks arrived with a (white) woodpigeon it was easy to follow them. It would be good to be able to track woodpigeon with the devices used on other birds then we would know for sure. 

[Highlander]

It’s got to be 70 years since Dr. Murton conducted his survey for the Ministry of Ags Infestation Control Laboratory. Some of the info will have changed no doubt but much else hasn’t. Maybe it’s time PW members contributed financially to a new survey perhaps by GWCT to update everyone (including those ignoramouses at NE) about woodys behaviour. Maybe even satelite tag a few as they’ve done with woodcock. Not sure how many members of PW but a £1 each should raise a fair bit!! 😊 Perhaps offer it to a uni student for their thesis.