alexr Posted September 13, 2009 Report Share Posted September 13, 2009 I was talking to a farmer in Coddington (between Wrexham and Chester) I had been wandering about the area this morning and had noticed several fields of stubble, but no pigeons. I had also noticed a distinct lack of road kill in the area. He was saying that this year there had been very few rabbits or pigeons about and thought that mixy may have caused the rapid decline in the rabbit population. He also mentioned that there has been an influx of buzzards into the area over the last few years, but again this should only really affect the rabbits. When it came to pigeons both of us were left scratching our heads. Any thoughts ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoughton Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 (edited) During the year all forms of game move around dependant upon weather, what crops are growing where and some other factors that I don't understand yet! I've always noticed that wildlife is a bit thrown immediately after the harvest - let's face it we change their complete world overnight (almost). Rabbits are definitely affected by mixy - they decline to tiny numbers in some areas and up and move in others when they become aware of disease and death. But there are still far, far more than we realise all still hidden away and doing what rabbits do best. Pigeons are always somewhere. The trick is finding where. An old shooting pal of mine has fantastic knowledge of flight paths and by looking at the direction, how fast and high they fly he generally knows where they may be heading or coming from - I've not known him to be wrong yet. Whereas I have to a lot of driving around and forming the belief that every wood pigeon has left Essex for the day. I bet that somewhere not far from your shoots there is a fantastic food supply that the pigeons are enjoying - maybe a late harvest that they are still clearing up - or maybe a farmer has spilled a load of wheat on a field somewhere? Be assured that the rabbits and pigeons will be back - I'm not a gambling man, but I'd put money on it! Good luck, Steve I was talking to a farmer in Coddington (between Wrexham and Chester) I had been wandering about the area this morning and had noticed several fields of stubble, but no pigeons. I had also noticed a distinct lack of road kill in the area. He was saying that this year there had been very few rabbits or pigeons about and thought that mixy may have caused the rapid decline in the rabbit population. He also mentioned that there has been an influx of buzzards into the area over the last few years, but again this should only really affect the rabbits. When it came to pigeons both of us were left scratching our heads. Any thoughts ? Edited September 14, 2009 by shoughton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerseaDavid Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 As shoughton said I think that mixy has affected the rabit population quite abit this year in some areas. Down my way our rabit population has been bigger than ever before. I am surprised you have not seen any pigeons about in your area, as alot of poeple are over run with pigeons and this year we have seen more pigeons than we did last year and every year before. Hope you get some shooting soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurrasicway Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Hi, All the pigeons are in Northamptonshire, never seen so many, all fat and full of wheat..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 (edited) My daughter has a horse on a local farm and the rabbit population was hit with mixxy two years ago and the girls were asking me to wring the necks of affected rabbits. Since then we have not seen a single rabbit but a golf course down the road has now got the problem. With pigeons we have found that they follow the food available and some farms never have a stubble population but the birds come back for the the acorns and then the rape in the winter. We have a lot of woodland in our area and this tends to hold alot of birds all times of the year. Good Shooting Pigeon Controller Edited September 14, 2009 by pigeon controller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexr Posted September 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Thanks all, Looks like rabbit may be off the menu for a while then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossy835 Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 took a mate up the estate i shoot, and showed him a lake he can fish, sunday and i never saw so many rabbits in my life running around it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikee Posted September 15, 2009 Report Share Posted September 15, 2009 there are plenty of pigeons in my part of norfolk, just down the road is a 100 odd acre field that had peas in during the summer but were over fit when the viners came through so got left for seed, i had a look at the field yesterday and there must ahve been 3-4000 birds on it and at least 3 almost constant flight lines into it, birds going in and out in swarms, and as for bunnys even though mixy has hit hard this year, harder than most other years there are plenty of good clean rabbits about, i think that a lot get over it round here these days mikee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossy835 Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 its been a poor year for pigeons down my way,not many on stubble at all, went out after work today and only shot 3, very poor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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