Pigeon shooting

A woodie free-for-all

Pigeon habits appear to be changing and things are being made even

harder because they’re being pestered by poor Shots, says Tom Payne

birds, particularly if you don’t have a

dog. Wheat is also harder to carry out

comprehensive reconnaissance on.

Pigeons might be choosing standing

wheat over stubble because they have

started to associate the latter with

danger, while fi nding the former safe.

Flea beetle

After chatting to a few

keepers and farmers

I’ve come up with

another theory

about why my

good pigeon areas

aren’t working.

Due to the recent

ban on pesticides to

kill fl ea beetle which

aff ects oil seed rape,

and the resultant rising

cost of production, less

winter oil seed rape has been grown.

Pigeons haven’t been able to fi nd this

traditional easy picking and have

dispersed in search of alternative

forms of sustenance. By the time

summer came, the birds had gone.

Some weeks ago, I endured a

day which seemed to be blighted

O

n my travels around

the country in pursuit

of woodpigeons it has

become very clear that

their behaviour varies enormously

during harvest time. When the

combines fi rst start rolling and the

early stubbles appear is when you

can make good bags. Then when

everyone is combining hard and the

countryside becomes a patchwork of

stubbles, the birds disperse and it’s

diffi cult to fi nd them in any density.

This harvest has been even trickier

due to stop-start combining as a result

of spells of wet weather. The constant

spells of rain don’t just aff ect the

farming, birds can also be reluctant

to feed if it’s really coming down hard.

In more than one county I’ve

found that, even when there is a fresh

stubble and you’re expecting a good

day, birds are still being drawn to

standing wheat. Perhaps they are

fi nding the wheat is providing greater

food density but pigeons are clever

birds and there could be something

more complicated at play. Most

pigeon shooters prefer shooting over

stubble because it’s easier to pick

“The spring drillings made classic

bags and the early laid crops on the

build up to harvest shot well”

D ROGERS

24 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

by every challenge that hits pigeon

shooters at this time of year. Last year

I wrote a piece about the farm that

is my nemesis (Birds behaving badly,

15 August 2018); it’s a farm that I’m

addicted to cracking at this time of

year. The area is a great pigeon spot in

theory,but it can be devilishly

hard to build a bag.

I met photographer

Darren and my friend

Matt at around

11am, ready to shoot

that afternoon

Optimistically,

I was hoping for

somewhere between

50 and 100. Due to the

heavy rain, many of the

earlier rape stubbles had

already been smashed up,

which wasn’t such a bad

thing because it was reducing food

sources to a certain degree and would

hopefully focus numbers.

I had a quick drive around earlier

to see what had been going on around

the other stubbles. Was there any

clear evidence of pigeon shooting

around the hedge lines, or any early

interest in the stubbles? It was very

clear that pigeon shooters had been

out and about.

We decided to head to a small

farm that only Matt and I can

shoot. It sounds ideal but due to the

The birds were wary of

Tom’s pigeon magnet