A kick-start on the maize marauders

When pigeons target flailed maize, it takes teamwork to whittle down their numbers, says Tom Payne

My clicker had packed up and I was starting to feel tired. It had been a busy day but as soon as I thought I was going to get a bit of a rest, we were off again. A small group arrived and I managed to nobble two out of the five. The other three turned away but one pigeon peeled back enough for a shot. Both barrels and not a feather; it was time for a break.

I went and had a quick clear-up, got back in the hide and poured a cup of tea from my flask. I looked across the flailed maize, with dead birds everywhere, and the vast field beyond it and asked myself how I ended up here. I hadn’t really been focusing on flailed or standing maize this year. A lack of it — and poor condition when it did arrive — meant I’ve focused on other crops.

I was driving along the gated road — I’m not sure why it’s so named, as there aren’t any gates for ages. As the road cuts through a gently sloping valley it feels as if you’re winding through the French countryside.

With a nice tarmac road and flat grass verges, I hit an all-time record speed for the Land Rover — a dizzying 57mph. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of black in my peripheral vision.

This is always a great indicator and suggested possible pigeon activity.

I slammed on the anchors, pulled over on to the grass verge, whipped out the binoculars and studied the landscape to confirm what I had spotted from the corner of my eye.

Some people argue that shooting pigeons over flailed maize is not protecting an agricultural crop.

I say that if birds have pulled off a winter crop, such as oilseed rape, and on to the bounty of maize, they will quickly finish that food source then pile back on to the winter crop.

I will take the opportunity to thin out the numbers when I can, especially when birds have been dealing with scarers, rockets, flags and the persistent pigeon shooter on the winter crop, making it impossible

“The farm seemed to gain and hold every pigeon parish population from a distance”

to get a handle on the numbers doing the damage.

The importance of game cover now for wildlife is evident. Various other birds and mammals really benefit from the maize, not only the pheasants and partridges that rely on this food source. Some shoots — if the

They have a small game shoot and their game covers have stood well and were holding a good amount of maize. James is very keen on conservation and proud of his grey partridges dotted around the farm, so to watch his efforts getting hammered by more than 3,000 pigeons was understandably frustrating.

Teamwork

I suggested that flailing one of the game crops at the top end of the rape would open a spot so that, as a team, we could shoot the whole field rather than only a percentage of the birds getting to the crop. This would mean that the line and birds on the belt of trees that splits the game cover and the rape crop could be targeted.

With a thick hedge dotted with sitty trees at one end and a small holding wood at the other, birds would filter into these and from there feed at their leisure. Flighting to both was not possible so it left us putting a plan together to try to manage some of the numbers.

The maize was flailed a week before shooting but due to the easterly wind, birds continued to hit the belt of trees then devour the green. With a change of wind to a south-westerly direction, I was hoping that operating at either ends of the field we could somehow control the day. Saturday, the day of shooting, arrived. Much to our amazement, the weather forecast had stayed true for the three days

prior and it seemed as though it was going to stay that way.

Ian and Swifty planned to take the top side of the field by the small holding wood. I was down by the belt with the strip of flailed maize running along it. I had to change my initial hide position, which was a little frustrating, but sometimes you have to make certain calls on the day mainly because of wind direction.

Pigeon trailer

As I set up, birds were moving and moving quite early. The lads had set up the pigeon trailer quickly and were away and running. There was no panic because they were shooting a different line of traffic. My main line hadn’t started and the third line — which would feed us both — wouldn’t really get going until about midday. I decided to give birds plenty to look at and maximise their approach to me by the placement of my hide.

All was set; I readied myself for battle. The first few pigeons arrived and I left them initially to see what they would do. They headed straight to the belt of trees but one bird peeled off and came very close. I slowly

“You have to take your opportunities but don’t stress if you miss a few hard ones”

stood up so as not to make it flare but enough for it to see me and change its angle and give some distance for me to shoot it properly. A tricky start.

For the next hour birds continued to trickle up to the belt, slowing down as they made their way to an ash sitty tree. It sounds easy, but birds that came in under power then put the brakes on as they headed to the tree take a lot of steadiness and control to shoot. It’s very easy to get your timing wrong, then the shot ends up being a mess and highly frustrating.

I left the hide and mixed things up a bit. I moved the decoys out and pushed the magnet further up the old whole cropped barley stubble above the maize to try to turn the birds to give me better angles on the shooting. It kind of worked but they still didn’t really want to feed. Don’t get me wrong — I was killing the numbers but it was frustrating, repetitive shooting and the pigeons weren’t doing what I wanted them to do.

Fatigue is a funny thing. Frustration will kick in and you will hope you’ve done enough to stop for the day. Much like FITASC, you have to take your opportunities but don’t stress if you miss a few hard ones. I had a few moments of poor shooting due to frustration but

I pulled it together.

The other lads were shooting pretty consistently with a few very small lulls, but the plan was beginning to work. If I could get the birds to commit my end I was on for a big one. I gave it both barrels and not a feather. It was time for a break.

As the team put their plan to the test, flocks of pigeons come into the decoys

Ellena Swift brings her picking-up team to help out, with young Keepa doing his bit (inset)