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Wintery Predictions?


jamesspencer_2001
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During the last week Metcheck have predicted that the country will have a colder than expected winter and that snow and frost will be much more frequent than of the warm wet winters of the past couple of years.

The earliest of this frost is to arrive next week. In my view the best time to shoot pigeon is in the cold periods where the pigeons are feeding vigorously and seem to commit to the deeks more freely than in the summer months.

What are your views on the predictions?

The signs are there that we will have a cold winter with an abundance of holly berries on the trees.

 

Hopefully the signs and predictions are right and we all get some good days out during the coming months.;)

 

Thanx Gentlemen

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As a ornithologist I have learned the various patterns associated with the Migratory influx of birds from Scandanavia..

 

Generally speaking birds like Redwing, and Fieldfare as well as our native Thrushes will tend to leave the berries on the branch for longer periods if the Winter is going to be harsh, and the influx of birds will be later in the year than normal. I notice from my diary this time last year large flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing were in the fields as well as plenty of Brambling, Chaffinch, and Siskin.

 

I havent seen any where near as many this year so it may be we are in for a hard one. That said the Pied wagtails seem to be hanging on longer and there is a lot of them about. They are generally insect eaters so perhaps this is not the case.

 

Who really knows?

 

FM.

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Ive seen the first fieldfares this weekend about 200 in one flock, i have always seen them in september in previous years so they are about a month late. Where i shoot (yorkshire) as soon as you start to see fieldfares then the teal arrive in numbers on my pond. Some evenings we can have 80-100 teal coming in evening flight time.

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JS,

its funny you mention about the berries on the bushes because when I was out with the dogs the other day I noticed that the trees had more berries than usual, packed tightlthey were, lets hope this is true about the trees knowing what to expect in winter.

 

I much prefer the cold snowy winter mornings than that crappy rain and sleet.

 

Happy woody shooting

 

The PM

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