Land of milk and honey? I don't think so.

[JDog]

The refurbishment of the house and the creation of a new garden are projects that are almost complete. Now is the time that my petrol consumption increases exponentially and the phrase 'I'm just taking the dogs out' is heard frequently between my wife and myself.

There are not many pigeons in this area. There, I've said it. I never thought I would but its true.

Having had several good sessions on winter rape the spring drilling season was a disaster as it was so wet. I never saw any spring beans go in and no farmer in these parts is mad enough to drill spring rape.

The few pigeons that there are seem to be on buds even now. There is a handful on clover and another lot on winter rape but not enough to get excited about.

Peas may be my saviour but my advances to one farm were cruelly rejected by a freckled and wrinkly faced lady whilst I was watching from the public road. She said there had been burglaries on her farm and needed to be vigilant with strangers. Whether she was soothed after our discussion I cannot say but I am an unlikely burglar even though I say it myself.

I do have one last chance on peas and I am awaiting an email reply from the owner of three fields in a very likely area.

Otherwise I will be waiting for laid barley which will be a month away. In the meantime I intend to go fishing.

[Ian willetts]

Nice to here your back on the chase jd happy fishing 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, nice write up JD, not sure where you are in Gloucestershire but there some good fishing, even trout fishing is getting better as the weather warms up,

[marsh man]

That sound nigh on exactly the same situation for most of us , you have only got to look at the reports coming in on the forum , even the ones we can rely on such as P C , Bunny Blaster and my fellow countryman Muncher and his dear ole shooting buddy Motty .

A friend of mine shot two very good bags a month or so back on flatened Maize game cover strips , since then he haven't bothered as it's a fair way for him to go to shoot a few Pigeons , on ours it been as quiet as we have ever known it , the shooting on the rape was a non event , I shot a few but t b h it wasn't really worth the effort , we have now got five Pea fields in that are 4 or 5 inches above the ground , I have a couple of hours two afternoons each week and I haven't had a double figure bag , I supply the local pub with 25 every other week and up to now I have just managed to get them spread over a fortnight , we are waiting to put one more decent field down the marsh and we have got till the end of the month to put the Peas in ,after that it would be to late , so hopefully it stay dry enough as these fields are normally pretty good , but you still need the Pigeons about to find them .

Our Winter barley is looking good with heads swaying about in the breeze , these come good in two or three weeks time when the grain get into a milky stage then before you know it the combines will come out of hibernation and start earning there keep , last year we made a start on the 11 th of July and went nearly three week without a single day lost for cutting , how will this year be ? , we will soon find out in the coming weeks .    MM

[bunny_blaster]

I’m struggling here in Warwickshire, I’ve got 3 blocks of peas to look at but apart from the bag I had when they were drilled they seem to be very hit and miss. I watched 1 block last Friday and it had a good number of pigeons feeding amongst 100’s of doves but I went to shoot it Saturday and didn’t see a bird. This seems to be the theme at the moment. I’m currently in Spain on a family holiday and I’ve seen a total of 5 woodies whilst here even though we’ve drove past acres of brassicas. Who knows where they have gone 

[Mightymariner]

Well, old boy. There are hardly any pigeons around here.

We have a lot of pea fields but no pigeons on them yet. I have one area of about seven fields in a large block, and as soon as two pigeons appear a couple of fair-weather shooters appear.

There are some up on the Wolds near your old place which may yield some shooting but they have only just gone in. There is a hiatus in drilling now as they don't want the crops all ready at the same time. So when my marsh peas go in it may improve.

The only pigeons I have shot are ferals, which I shot from a barn as a favour for a farmer.

 

[marsh man]

On 24/05/2023 at 16:35, bunny_blaster said:

I’m struggling here in Warwickshire, I’ve got 3 blocks of peas to look at but apart from the bag I had when they were drilled they seem to be very hit and miss. I watched 1 block last Friday and it had a good number of pigeons feeding amongst 100’s of doves but I went to shoot it Saturday and didn’t see a bird. This seems to be the theme at the moment. I’m currently in Spain on a family holiday and I’ve seen a total of 5 woodies whilst here even though we’ve drove past acres of brassicas. Who knows where they have gone 

I am wondering if the bird flu did have any effect on the numbers , one member did say they found some dead Pigeons in his area but down here we had a lot of cases of the flu but throughout the shooting season our dogs didn't bring back a single Pigeon that hadn't been shot , so I don't think that would be the case , round here we haven't got a single gas gun going off anywhere , the farm manager on ours must think I am doing a marvelous job , how wrong he would be 

[pigeon controller]

I had a good drive around on Tuesday and did not find a flightline. I managed to find approx 100 acres of peas about four inches high, no birds but lots of gas guns!!!!!

I found another large acreage of direct drilled peas completed on Monday and all over the surface, no birds and with the very hot weather I doubt they will germinate on the surface.

The barley on some farms is very tall with large heads so I’m hoping we will get some heavy rain to knock it down but still no birds visible.

I managed two pigeons last week and four rats in my cage traps under the wife’s bird feeder.

[JDog]

1 hour ago, pigeon controller said:

I had a good drive around on Tuesday and did not find a flightline. I managed to find approx 100 acres of peas about four inches high, no birds but lots of gas guns!!!!!

I found another large acreage of direct drilled peas completed on Monday and all over the surface, no birds and with the very hot weather I doubt they will germinate on the surface.

The barley on some farms is very tall with large heads so I’m hoping we will get some heavy rain to knock it down but still no birds visible.

I managed two pigeons last week and four rats in my cage traps under the wife’s bird feeder.

Desperate times PC.

I now have eight fields of peas to shoot over with no pigeons on any of them.

[marsh man]

55 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

I had a good drive around on Tuesday and did not find a flightline. I managed to find approx 100 acres of peas about four inches high, no birds but lots of gas guns!!!!!

I found another large acreage of direct drilled peas completed on Monday and all over the surface, no birds and with the very hot weather I doubt they will germinate on the surface.

The barley on some farms is very tall with large heads so I’m hoping we will get some heavy rain to knock it down but still no birds visible.

I managed two pigeons last week and four rats in my cage traps under the wife’s bird feeder.

You have been shooting Pigeons a long time and no doubt know where you would expect to find Pigeons on your weekly travels , I only travel local now but the land I go on is as good as you would get and even if I covered a lot of land I used to go on I think it would still be producing the same results , we go for a run out on a Sunday and through force of habit I pass farms where I could still go if I wanted to and yes you have guessed right there is next to nothing , when I was working I would leave fields alone because I would be thinking they were not worth the effort to spend most of my day off to shoot what would now be a decent bag , now  with how things had been , those sort of fields would now produce a Red Letter Day compared to the poor bags I have recently , we have an agreement with the estate that as long as the Pigeons don't cause to much damage they would leave the gas guns off , so at the moment we have got 20 / 30 going on our five fields and I go for a couple of hours on at least two days a week so they get about a weeks rest before I have the next short session , like I said on another post I have not shot a double figure bag since they were drilled and they are now around six inches above ground , still the barley is looking good and time marches on so in a few weeks time things could be completely different , but somehow I have my doubts .   MM

[clangerman]

the peas are like a pigeon desert birds are all on a football pitch must have been 100 there yesterday safe as the houses around it 

[ditchman]

strange reports of zero pigeons............

i dont shoot now ...but here in dersingham it seems to be pigeon central ....see them flying over here all day.........and there are always a couple of guns blazing away at them in the woods to the east of me..........

really surprised of the report from PC

[Bigbob]

Quite often see more in the gardens at the bird feeders and on the grass strips near roads now  than on fields 

[marsh man]

8 hours ago, ditchman said:

strange reports of zero pigeons............

i dont shoot now ...but here in dersingham it seems to be pigeon central ....see them flying over here all day.........and there are always a couple of guns blazing away at them in the woods to the east of me..........

really surprised of the report from PC

You are in a prime Pigeon area up there in N / Norfolk , loads of holding woods and a lot of countryside , reading the ole book The King In His Country by Audrey Buxton he was saying he enjoyed a day shooting Pigeons at Sandringham as much if not more than any other form of shotgun shooting .

Not sure how you would get on if you went door knocking at the big house for the go ahead , or would you need royal approval first. 

[Wilts#Dave]

Been the same in my area too. The acreage of peas on my farms is greatly reduced this year which is a shame as all the best fields seemed to get planted in peas over the last 3 or 4 years and yielded great sport from June through to harvest! 
Some of our best fields have also been lost due to ownership change, but as you say there are just not pigeons to find at the moment in certain areas…..I’ve covered enough miles on a regular basis checking too 😂 

I hope I’m wrong but it’s looking to be the worst year numbers wise since I started accompanying my Dad some 30 odd years ago, certainly so far anyway. 
I’m certainly missing finding those opportunities and getting out in the hide! 

[ditchman]

if PC is suffering ....then you know something aint right............

would be intersting to hear from Motty....but i understand he has moved..perhaps Muncher would let us know 

[marsh man]

8 hours ago, ditchman said:

if PC is suffering ....then you know something aint right............

would be intersting to hear from Motty....but i understand he has moved..perhaps Muncher would let us know 

It would also be interesting to know if game dealers are still getting Pigeons in , I would think that 99% of Pigeon shooters who shoot high numbers of Pigeons do not waste or dump them , we could now be in the situation where we have got a small market to offload the bag or empty the freezer but cannot supply through lack of numbers 

We will hear from the odd person who get a good bag but then we don't hear from them for a while and in a lot of cases , for ever 

[ditchman]

2 minutes ago, marsh man said:

It would also be interesting to know if game dealers are still getting Pigeons in , I would think that 99% of Pigeon shooters who shoot high numbers of Pigeons do not waste or dump them , we could now be in the situation where we have got a small market to offload the bag or empty the freezer but cannot supply through lack of numbers 

We will hear from the odd person who get a good bag but then we don't hear from them for a while and in a lot of cases , for ever 

the gas guns were going off at 6 this morning ..........................

[oldypigeonpopper]

On 27/05/2023 at 09:02, marsh man said:

It would also be interesting to know if game dealers are still getting Pigeons in , I would think that 99% of Pigeon shooters who shoot high numbers of Pigeons do not waste or dump them , we could now be in the situation where we have got a small market to offload the bag or empty the freezer but cannot supply through lack of numbers 

We will hear from the odd person who get a good bag but then we don't hear from them for a while and in a lot of cases , for ever 

Hello, I know of a dedicated  shooter still selling his shot pigeons but only using steel shot carts at the game dealers request, I might get a chance on laid barley which is mostly late afternoon, evening, so I may take the air rifle and check out the rats late evening, 

Edited May 28, 2023 by oldypigeonpopper

[marsh man]

5 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, I know of a dedicated  shooter still selling his shot pigeons but only using steel shot carts at the game dealers request, I might get a chance on laid barley which is mostly late afternoon, evening, so I may take the air rifle and check out the rats late evening, 

Good luck with whatever you are going after , we had a ride out today and the barley fields are looking in first class condition , still two to three weeks away of when you would expect the first signs of any laid stuff , this of course depend on the weather conditions and heavy rain with a strong wind can change things overnight , yesterday I saw the first glimmer of hope of more Pigeons now starting to get about , this might well be the buds are now , or getting well into leaf and the Pigeons are now leaving the woods to find another food outlet , well over 100 got out of the trees and what were on the Peas but very feww came back and I went home with eight more than I went out with , this will keep them off for a couple of days and then I will have another couple of hours later on during the week , the object of the exercise is to keep them for a day or two but leaving enough to have another little go a few days later , the last thing I want to do is keep them off for good