Were have all the pigeons gone?

[the hitman]

Locally we have a few showing interest in the OSR, however I have seen hedges full as they gorge on haw berries, which are in abundance. Acorns and beechmast are still on the menu too.

My prediction is that as already mentioned once we have a cold snap then we will see them appear in good numbers on the OSR.

[Gas seal]

The downside of warmer weather is the flee beetle it will be around longer. Yes gas guns on fields will move the pigeons around. The place I put gas guns is where they sit all day . Under the trees or on the growing cereal fields where they sit on wet windy days. This will move them away as a flock. The more they are chased around the field more they want to eat the harder to move on. Some years we have walked them up shooting at them sometimes on the field and they keep in front of us and then flew over us back to the field. When they are that hungry it’s eat or don’t survive the long winter nights. I’ve seen new flocks drop on a field and they are half starved and they have no fear of any thing . I see pigeons each year eating ivy berries and pigeons flying over them to feed on rape I don’t know why rape is the last thing they eat. 

[worrall26]

By Reasheath college Nantwich today plenty of pigeon dropping in on looked like new grass. Many bits off tuffs of old grass on top. 

[old'un]

12 hours ago, the hitman said:

Locally we have a few showing interest in the OSR, however I have seen hedges full as they gorge on haw berries, which are in abundance. Acorns and beechmast are still on the menu too.

My prediction is that as already mentioned once we have a cold snap then we will see them appear in good numbers on the OSR.

My prediction is, that when all the natural food as gone they will start to look at the rape, cold snap or not.

[marsh man]

17 minutes ago, old'un said:

My prediction is, that when all the natural food as gone they will start to look at the rape, cold snap or not.

That is bang on the button , the key bit is ( when all the natural food is gone ) , in other words , when there is nothing left to eat except Green stuff above the ground , this year the acorns will linger on for some time to come , you have then got an abundance of berries , around here the beet harvest is in full swing and the Pigeons love the small bits that have been left on the freshly lifted beet fields , we have also got rows and rows of game cover that Pigeons and Crows start on once it get knocked about just after Christmas , also while the weather is staying mild we are now seeing a lot of Pigeons on the grazing fields after any fresh Clover poking through the short grass .

What we have to remember is that Rape is the last resort a Pigeon would turn to if there was nothing else to eat , in pre rape years it would be Kale that was grown for winter feed for the cattle , or Sprout's and Cabbages if we had snow on the ground.

I have found over the last few years that my best times on the rape was late February or early March when the rape have been fed and it begin to germinate , maybe in my case , it is getting slightly warmer by then and the game and wildfowl seasons are over  

[old'un]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

That is bang on the button , the key bit is ( when all the natural food is gone ) , in other words , when there is nothing left to eat except Green stuff above the ground , this year the acorns will linger on for some time to come , you have then got an abundance of berries , around here the beet harvest is in full swing and the Pigeons love the small bits that have been left on the freshly lifted beet fields , we have also got rows and rows of game cover that Pigeons and Crows start on once it get knocked about just after Christmas , also while the weather is staying mild we are now seeing a lot of Pigeons on the grazing fields after any fresh Clover poking through the short grass .

What we have to remember is that Rape is the last resort a Pigeon would turn to if there was nothing else to eat , in pre rape years it would be Kale that was grown for winter feed for the cattle , or Sprout's and Cabbages if we had snow on the ground.

I have found over the last few years that my best times on the rape was late February or early March when the rape have been fed and it begin to germinate , maybe in my case , it is getting slightly warmer by then and the game and wildfowl seasons are over  

As many of us know rape as very little nutritional value for pigeons and they need to eat lots of it to see them through the winter nights, its become a last resort food after everything else as gone, as we used to say, they are a long time getting on it but also a long time coming off it, its almost like a drug to them.

Pigeons will always go for the most nutritional food if its available.

I have seen it a few times over the years but I remember one year in particular when a 50 acre field of spring barley could not be harvested because the field was so water logged, there were plenty of rape fields within a mile or two of this barley field but that winter you could count the number of pigeons on any of the rape fields on one hand. They must have come from miles around, there were thousands hitting the barley field nearly every day throughout the winter.

The most annoying thing about it was the farmer would not let me shoot it,.... his view was, while they are on the barley they are leaving my rape alone.

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

As many of us know rape as very little nutritional value for pigeons and they need to eat lots of it to see them through the winter nights, its become a last resort food after everything else as gone, as we used to say, they are a long time getting on it but also a long time coming off it, its almost like a drug to them.

Pigeons will always go for the most nutritional food if its available.

I have seen it a few times over the years but I remember one year in particular when a 50 acre field of spring barley could not be harvested because the field was so water logged, there were plenty of rape fields within a mile or two of this barley field but that winter you could count the number of pigeons on any of the rape fields on one hand. They must have come from miles around, there were thousands hitting the barley field nearly every day throughout the winter.

The most annoying thing about it was the farmer would not let me shoot it,.... his view was, while they are on the barley they are leaving my rape alone.

One thing I have noticed over the years is the shooting have never been as good as the first early rape fields we shot on , as you say it was like a drug , no matter how hard you shot ,or how many you shot they would be back in a matter of days .

The very first rape field we shot was down the marsh and was in the middle of a triangle of large woods that were a mile or so away , we had a bale in the middle of the field and as me and my brother were both at work we never had a great deal of time to sit about all day shooting pigeons , we both went beating on the local estate and I was into wild fowling in the Winter months , we noticed Pigeons were going on there from mid December so we left it till our Christmas holidays , I went the Boxing day and the hide was covered in droppings from where they had been landing , Pigeon came into the decoys at first light in the 100s as they must have all left the woods at the same time , after some good shooting they went back to the woods and for the rest of the day they would come back more or less non stop , I forgot what I ended up but when the farmer came down to see how I was getting on I asked him if he would take two sack fulls back to my motor as I only had a two wheel drive car then and the field would have been out of bounds for any two wheel drive motor , after that first day my brother shot it one day in the middle of every week and I shot it Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather , this carried on till nearly Easter and I believe we ended up shooting around 1500 , never been like that since .

[Gas seal]

Rape is a risky crop to grow Fields can be lost to flee beetles in late summer or to pigeons when it starts to grow after the winter and a lot of farmers may stop growing it. I’ve seen pigeons in winter on rape others on ivy berries and on the salt marsh on small brown seeds. The pigeons on rape can be moved on but they don’t follow the pigeons on the ivy or the salt marsh. This time of the year there can be hundreds of pigeons in a small tree line of oaks and not one to be seen. We have lots of pigeons flying from towns and cities in the summer I think these are the ones on the ivy and the salt marsh in winter.I don’t think it’s the cold that attracts pigeon to rape its just food. I’ve seen pigeons sitting in trees for days in freezing weather the other pigeons still feed on ivy and on the salt marsh . I have shot pigeons on rape fields on still winter days with an  air rifle the days you wouldn’t go out for them. With pigeons it’s where have they gone or where have all these pigeons come from. It’s the same every year. I wouldn’t want to try and count them all.

[hushpower]

2- 3000 at the mo where i shoot on acorns  very flity

[Good shot?]

2-3000 passing at tree height and at speed on my last two outings. Quite a few were roosting in a nearby wood.

Really nice to see them about at last.

[mossy835]

2 of us went in the woods on saturday,only saw about 6 pigeons,never came in the woods, so we had a go at the tree rats,had 4,

Edited November 28, 2022 by mossy835