Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Where can you find a pigeon paradise?
You need lots of arable, plenty of woodland and an abundance of birds but which is the best pigeon shooting county, wonders Tom Payne
Where’s the best place to go pigeon shooting, Tom?” is a question frequently asked of me down the pub or on gun buses throughout the season. It’s not an easy one to answer because there are so many factors at play and they constantly change. I’m fortunate enough to shoot pigeon in many different counties; by no means all — I’ve never tackled a Hebridean pigeon — but I shoot in most counties that suffer significant pigeon damage.
Instead of looking at this from a shooting point of view, for now I will first assess farming practices, habitat and urbanisation, which play a major role with regards to the woodpigeon populations of an area. Arable farming has played into the hands, figuratively speaking, of this most formidable agricultural enemy by offering a multitude of food sources all year round.
Food sources
Everything from winter crops such as oilseed rape to the huge amount of grain grown in the summer, are not only good food sources but they are vital in terms of birds being able to produce pigeon milk for young in their peak breeding months.
Areas that feature vast amounts of peas will always become pigeon hotspots due to the all-round food source the crop provides, from drilling to harvest. This is great for the pigeon and the pigeon shooter — but not so much for the farmer.
The major arable areas of England are the south-east, East Anglia and the East Midlands. These parts of the country hold huge populations of
“The bulk of the woodpigeon population will be found in England’s arable areas”
woodpigeon and I would be happy to almost guarantee that the bulk of the English woodpigeon population will be found in these areas.
The aptly named woodpigeon would be found as the name suggests — in the woods of the UK. But this
is changing. In ancient times, our woodies would have been found most frequently in forests. The change in management of these areas has meant a decrease in English woodlands, with some counties having been left with minimal forestry, meaning that their pigeon populations can be found in more open areas.
The ideal situation for pigeon is for them to have warm and sheltered conifer woods to roost in and broadleaved woods for food in the winter.
Species such as oak, beech and ash are also popular as they provide a nutritious food source.
Mixed woods
time in a positive way for the farmer but not for the pigeon shooter. I have said it before — some of the best farms that produce the biggest bags of pigeon are based near towns, cities and villages. Think about how many gardens there are in the suburbs of big cities and how many bird tables are in those gardens. These bird tables burst with food, which, combined with warmth in a garden tree and safety from predators, offers an almost perfect breeding ground. However, pigeon don’t completely lose their foraging instinct and will leave the safety of the big lights to hammer crops on local farms.
Another factor is the number and standard of pigeon shooters. If we are looking at what is the best pigeon shooting county, though it might have big numbers of birds, those birds could get pestered on a daily basis. This will make it nearly impossible to shoot them.
If the standard of actual shooting is poor the birds inevitably are missed and are therefore educated all the time over decoys. The result is that it
Shooting over flailed maize can pay dividends
The Home Counties and Hampshire include a varied mix of woodlands.
This habitat is highly appealing to the woodpigeon because when we move north to Scotland the woodlands become increasingly conifer-based, though there is the odd pigeon paradise here and there.
It is perhaps surprising how much urbanisation has affected the woodpigeon in many counties — this becomes very difficult to get a handle on managing numbers because the population becomes wary. However, if the standard of the pigeon shooter is good, birds are not overshot and they are shot in the right conditions and killed — not educated.
Migration
The current farming — or lack of farming — of rape has had a massive impact on the density of winter holding numbers in this country.
It’s been very noticeable over the past two years. I had a conversation with an elderly man about pigeon in the 1950s and 1960s. We discussed migration habits of the pigeon out of the country.
He went on to talk about vast numbers of British birds leaving during the winter for the oak forests of France then on to the cork oaks of Spain. As weather improved and food became abundant in the UK again, they would return — bringing a few European birds with them. With the introduction of oilseed rape, this chap believed that the pigeon were offered a better food source in the winter months than those oaks in Europe so fewer birds would leave. Could we be reverting to that? I have no concrete evidence but it’s certainly something that’s been at the back of my mind ever since.
So which counties make it into my list of top pigeon shooting locations from personal experience?
The northern parts of England can and do have their moments on pigeon. I have found that this tends to be around harvest and normally
September as the rest of the harvest draws to a close in the south and the colder parts of England gain a population. In some cases very big bags do get shot but in general I’m afraid the northern counties do not make the cut.
Sporadic
The West Midlands and the southwest also are great shooting counties on the pigeon front but can be sporadic. The former can be very good but it is patchy through the year and numbers do vary. Warwickshire has produced some huge bags for me but has limited consistency through the year. The same applies for the south-west. Gloucestershire and
Wiltshire — especially over flailed maize — can show great sport.
The top areas are the East Midlands, the south-east and East Anglia. The Home Counties cover all the aspects I have mentioned but they don’t go in at the top. They are superb pigeon counties on numbers, perfect farming and urban mix. However, I’m afraid that in certain areas the birds are chased and pestered all the time.
From a professional pigeon shooter’s point of view, this makes the job very difficult, with a population that is much too educated and flighty. The birds are certainly up there but the big bags tend only to come on the privately managed ground.
I am a massive fan of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. They are lovely counties to shoot and they offer the right arable mix, good habitat and excellent numbers throughout. They are counties that shoot consistently all year.
My three favourite counties, which may or may not surprise you, are chosen because they have it all — they have woods, they have arable and they aren’t overshot. They are also three of the biggest counties in the country and not one of them is landlocked meaning you have pigeon on all sides. In no particular order, my top two are Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
They are huge arable counties and probably the two major pea-growing places in the country.
Diversification
Lincolnshire perhaps holds the better shooting around the year with diversification in crop. But game strips in Norfolk — which is a big game shooting county — really hold pigeon in big numbers through the winter and with brilliant breeding woods, it’s a gem. Surprisingly, it is not too heavily shot and when the pigeon shooters are out, they do the job. Lincolnshire is very much the same.
“Some of the best farms that produce the big bags of pigeon are based near towns”
My third favourite is Hampshire. It really does have everything that the pigeon shooter requires; a superb selection of diverse habitat and woodland and it’s a big arable farming county. The fields offer good shooting sizes and the county has some very large urban areas, bulking the population up. There are a few pigeon shooters but the level is generally good and it is fairly straightforward to get in and do the job, with birds decoying well.
There is one other reason why
I, in a funny kind of way, consider Hampshire to be the capital of pigeon shooting. It is the home of the late grandfather of pigeon shooting, Major Archie Coats.