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pigeon flocks/rape feeding


shawn9914
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Dont know where they are in my area on shooting nar ashford in Kent.

 

Was there yesterday and only was about 2 dozen all day.

 

Even stayed in the woods till dark and only had one lot come over to try and roost, but one missed shot and they were all gone.

 

No pigeons but 2 pheasants another woodcock (2nd of the season) and a rabbit.

 

Could have been the red letter day that was mentioned early if I could have just hit what I was shooting at.

 

 

Trev.

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Noticed the pigeons out on the rape for the last couple of days, so out I went, set up and had a few shots but once the birds had lifted they were off for good, nothing came back my way!!!

 

So went out again today and just sat under a well established flightline between two rape fields. The first few birds I shot. their crops were full of ivy berries. So I got my bino's out and studied some of the birds in the rape fields, to my astonishment they were just resting out there without eating. To back up my observations, some of the birds lifted and came straight over me, dropped two of them and upon opening their crops more bl@@dy Ivy berries.

 

When will this torture end!!!!! :D

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hi all

 

been out all day today on some rape fields what a day

 

DISASTER DISASTER DISASTER

 

shot 2 pigeons and 1 crow moved 3 times birds did not want to know i give up at the moment

 

opened there crops and guess what full of bl***y ivy berries

 

had a good idea though might shut my business for the week and get all the staff to go round all the trees with ivy on them and remove all the berries might have a chance then :D:D:D:D

 

cheers shawn

 

ps have any of you had better luck :devil:

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the farm i shoot on in kent has had woodies on the rape for nearly a month.best bag so far has been 87.that said unless i have been directly under a flight line with either the magnet and/or flappers it can be very frustrating.last time out shot several young birds which is a first for this time of year.

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went out saterday on the rape with mate he set up hide in the field under flight line while i sat in wood under flight line pigeons flying over mate having a look at deeks and swinging back around into em. same with me they where flying over wood noticing the few deeks i had out and swinging back into a beech tree.he had 11 and 2 ferals i hab 15 a magpie and a squizzy wont say how many shells we fired though.only out for three hours rain stopped them coming in.

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went out today with a mate got to the field and there is a burger bar opposite so first stop was a bacon sarni and a cuppa tea

 

whilst eating it in the car noticed about 500 pigeons lift of the rape field so we rammed the food down our necks and set about our gear

 

we trundled about 200 metres up the field away from the road and set up in a small ditch

 

1st bird came over and bang missed it then it went a bit quite for 5 minutes then a chap came walking down the hedge row and said what are you doing so i said shooting the pigeons for mr ******* the farmer and he said no your not , not on my land so i said i am sorry but i dont understand he then explained the farmer who asked us to shoot the pigeons only rents the field of him and has no shooting rights on it oh dear :*) he then said we could stay as we were all set up but were not to come back we declined and left

 

we then went to se mr ****** and he said he thought he had the shooting rights and appologised and said he had loads more rape fields that he owned and we never new about and said we could shoot on these instead so it turned out not so bad after all

 

it was now 11 am and time was running out so we decided to set up on a grass field just been covered in cow **** boy it stank we put out 4 crow decoys and set up a hide and sat down again we shot 6 crows and missed even more then 1 pm it started to rain and hail like i have never seen ran back to the jeep for some cover then eventually packed up at 2pm soaked to the skin so all in all a bit of a disaster but we now have loads more rape fields than we started with today so alls not lost will be out doing some reccy on these fields later in the week yip eeeeeeee :oops:

 

cheers shawn

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been getting some good bags of pigeon off rape up here went last friday with a magnet!! for a change? took 61 missed as many? set up this morning conditions perfect, noticed that there didn't seem to be many about, but thought no probs I am on a good predictable flight line? 1st bird in and down within litterally a minute of loading my gun, then NOTHING sat for 3 hours another 5 single birds came in and one magpie that WAS passing, never saw a group of birds at all!! hope they aint moved on ?

cheers Keith

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Went for a good ride round my shoots today, blowing a gale and a great pigeon day weather wise. Saw a few small groups but when they were clapped off they dissapeared never to return. Stopped off at a golf course I'd not visited before to see if they wanted the rabbits sorted, there were buries all over the place but on asking the head groundsman I was informed that they had someone already shooting and ferreting them. All I can say is it's about time whoever it is retired and let someone who wants to do it properly have a go :oops:

 

It's amazing how much food the pigeons have been able to find over the "winter", makes you wonder if they are about in the same numbers as previous years. If you take how much a single bird eats per day then multiply that by the number of pigeons you hope are in your area it's a hell of a lot of food to scavenge from woods and hedgerows.

 

Anybody believe the theory that they migrate to other countries, maybe Ireland or France for instance ?

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Old Rooster said

 

It's amazing how much food the pigeons have been able to find over the "winter", makes you wonder if they are about in the same numbers as previous years.

 

I agree. As of today there is still very little activity on the rape, but I've had a flock of about 80 (?) feeding in the wood by my house for weeks now. There is still a bit of beech mast left. They come into the garden too, and scratch about in the hedge bottom, presumably picking up bugs that the "winter" didn't kill (or allowed to breed) and acorns. I shot one last nght coming in to roost about a mile from my place and opened his crop......

 

67 bits of beech mast

7 ivy berries

1 hazlenut

3 small acorns, sprouting

Enough green stuff to cover your fingernail, a bit was rape and the rest was "something".

Half a dozen unidentified seeds

 

I was stood in the copse for less than an hour and I saw maybe five hundred birds

in different sized packs; all the ole boys 'n gals round here reckon it's the biggest year ever for woodies.

 

Roll on the Spring drillings!

 

Regards

Eug

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