bunny_blaster Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 I had a call last Sunday from a farmer regarding pigeons on his rape. I went and had a look in the afternoon and pushed a good number off 2 of his fields. I told him I’ll shoot it on Saturday and after a look on Friday it looked promising. I got set up Saturday and had a slow day with long waits in between shots. The birds just didn’t return in any numbers. I called it a day at 3.30 with 48 pigeon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 Well done, at least you are finding some and getting a bit of shooting, what sort of numbers were on the field? Did you look to see what they had been feeding on, or were they empty as were most of the birds I shot last week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 Maybe a slow day in your book BB , but for us famine stricken East Anglians it would be a Red letter day , joking aside , if you are finding it hard then a lot of Pigeon shooters are finding it a lot harder , We were out Saturday afternoon roost shooting ,being out was it , the roost shooting just didn't happen , you shot more than I saw all afternoon , having said that the lads on the other side of the estate where the rape fields are did get a few and the best I have heard was the keeper young son decoyed some rape till dinnertime and then went in the wood with his dad later on and ended up with a combined bag of around 30 . THANKS for posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adzyvilla Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 Nice day out id say BB. Echoing marsh man, we probably don't have 48 pigeon here in the whole of Norfolk! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bunny_blaster Posted February 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 1 hour ago, old'un said: Well done, at least you are finding some and getting a bit of shooting, what sort of numbers were on the field? Did you look to see what they had been feeding on, or were they empty as were most of the birds I shot last week? I say good numbers, it was good compared to what I found last weekend. I pushed 250-300 off both fields. All birds were empty apart from one bird which only had one acorn in its crop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 14 minutes ago, bunny_blaster said: I say good numbers, it was good compared to what I found last weekend. I pushed 250-300 off both fields. All birds were empty apart from one bird which only had one acorn in its crop. I am still of the opinion that there are a lot less birds about this year, there's a 50 acre wood on one of the farms I shoot, it’s always been a good wood for roost shooting, I have not shot it this year but talking to the farmer he said he had not seen any pigeons coming into roost this year. There might be something in which I posted about after talking to an ornithologist about the low numbers in this area and his comments about seeing very large numbers heading south from the end of September and through October and into November. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morkin Posted February 6, 2023 Report Share Posted February 6, 2023 Well done BB. I'm just eco to what has been said really, but I thought things where going to change about 2 weeks ago as I was starting to see larger numbers getting together on the rape, but since the end of last week I don't know where they are, I had a ride round on the quad sat and didn't see many at all. It's nice to read all your comments and the different areas we are all in to relate on what we are seeing ourselves, Thankyou chaps I find it very interesting reading.👍👍👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted February 7, 2023 Report Share Posted February 7, 2023 Well done BB , 48 is a good number in the current situation, it proves that if you put the miles in you can find a days sport. I had the situation on Sunday that I had a bird in the garden driving the dog mad sitting on the shed roof , it looked drunk and I nearly caught it with a landing net which made me think of Avian Flu?? We have not received reports of dead birds. I predict that the birds will appear in numbers in time when they are focused on the food supply.In the mean time BB keep scanning the fields and reporting your numbers to keep us interested. Well done and keep reporting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted February 7, 2023 Report Share Posted February 7, 2023 1 hour ago, pigeon controller said: Well done BB , 48 is a good number in the current situation, it proves that if you put the miles in you can find a days sport. I had the situation on Sunday that I had a bird in the garden driving the dog mad sitting on the shed roof , it looked drunk and I nearly caught it with a landing net which made me think of Avian Flu?? We have not received reports of dead birds. I predict that the birds will appear in numbers in time when they are focused on the food supply.In the mean time BB keep scanning the fields and reporting your numbers to keep us interested. Well done and keep reporting. Morning P C .... First of all , I hope you are feeling better and will soon be able to join BB + DB so we get a double whammy of reports , as they are certainly short in coming . Picking up on the Avian Flu mention , since we had a problem in the early Winter with several Pheasants found dead or dying in one area we haven't found a single dead bird on any of the shoots we have had from November , no game , pigeons or any other birds , same with our estuary where the bird population can run into the 1000s there have not been any reports of birds found with the virus , so I don't think the shortage at the moment is down to the pigeons catching the flu , might be in other places but not around here . Good luck MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted February 7, 2023 Report Share Posted February 7, 2023 1 hour ago, pigeon controller said: Well done BB , 48 is a good number in the current situation, it proves that if you put the miles in you can find a days sport. I had the situation on Sunday that I had a bird in the garden driving the dog mad sitting on the shed roof , it looked drunk and I nearly caught it with a landing net which made me think of Avian Flu?? We have not received reports of dead birds. I predict that the birds will appear in numbers in time when they are focused on the food supply.In the mean time BB keep scanning the fields and reporting your numbers to keep us interested. Well done and keep reporting. Well I will be out tomorrow and will report back. Talking about poorly pigeons in your garden, my wife spends a bloody fortune on bird food, she has about six hanging feeders, she also puts a handful or two on the bird tables and the lawn, she as a feeding routine, first feed is about 8:30-9:00am and the second about 2:00pm, we get a good mix of birds including wood pigeons that fly in from the nature reserve about a quarter of a mile away, you could almost set your clock by these pigeons as within 20-30 minutes of putting the seed out we would have pigeons piling into the garden, now for as long as I can remember it was nothing to see 15 or 20 pigeons most days and sometimes more, but this year the most we have seen is 5, she did ask me if I had been shooting them, which I have not. Bird flu?? possibly, but have have noticed this last 12 months or so the number of poorly pigeons I have found in the garden with canker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu nesling Posted February 7, 2023 Report Share Posted February 7, 2023 nothing wrong with that, nice one 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clangerman Posted February 7, 2023 Report Share Posted February 7, 2023 no shame in that bag 46 more than I shot sunday good effort Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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