A Busy Week

[pigeon controller]

I had a call from Bunny_Blaster in the week that he had a farmer asking him to shoot some rape but he could not get to him until two weeks could I shoot it for him.  You can imagine the answer, he text me a picture of the field concerned and left me to it. So arrived at the fields Wednesday morning and scanned the fields the only birds I could see on the rape were next to a village school playground. So that’s a No No. I decided to walk the length of the first field to the largest of the three fields . When I arrived at the far field a flightline had started across the adjacent road to it from the corner of the field that I had left the Disco.

So” The Plan” was to set up close to the Disco and spook the birds off the large field into wind and hopefully into my decoys. I set up with ten birds on cradles and two on the magnet, I lofted two Plastic decoys in an Ash tree above the hide using telescopic flag poles. I was all set up for 10.30 and the first birds arrived and decoyed the shots lifted the other birds of the further field. Some birds went to the pattern and some to the lofters. The day was steady and I called it a day 15.30 and picked up 131 pigeons.

Friday I went back to the rape I’ve been looking after and met the farmer who asked me to shoot a specific field as it was getting very threadbare. Now I like to shoot where the birds are feeding not where I’m told to shoot but” Yes Sir No Sir “. Now this is the field I set up on last week and after an hour one bird returned and I packed up.

When I arrived it had approx  150 birds all over it so I watched it for 15 minutes and they favoured the bottom edge so I set up under a Alder tree and lofted two birds above the hide to see if it would bring passing birds to me. I was set up for 10.30 and used the magnet and two cradles all above the rape to make them visible. The first hour was very slow but it picked up as the day went on with mini flocks coming in, shoot two ,spook ten. I packed up 16.00 and picked up 53.

Today I headed out to the three hundred acres of rape to find no birds at all but the wind was very strong and the fields are elevated. While I was looking I received a call from another farmer who had bird problems in his rape. The only concern is that this farm is thirty miles from me at present, I decide to find the fastest direct route and head over. When I arrived the birds were none evident  and I gave the farmer a call “ Oh I Put a Rocket over them and they went”  THANKS!!!!!

I drove around and found fifty down on some other rape and as it was 12.30 I decided to go for it.

The wind was very strong and the magnet was being pushed all over the place so I put out the standard ten on cradles above the thick parts of the rape as if they were levitating.

I was all ready by 13.15 with the very strong wind on my back , the first birds crossing the field came straight to me and at 14.00 I had birds  from a local game shoot pass over my head and these returned  back to me into wind. I packed up at 17.00 and picked up 62 birds.

So a busy week.

[HantsRob]

Wow that's amazing! Great job! Wish I could lend you a hand!

[the hitman]

Excellent work PC you are blazing the trail this winter.

Good write up- keep them coming.

[JDog]

Very good PC, determined as ever.