Pigeons outwit Geoff Garrod
Geoff Garrod makes the most of a difficult situation but laments a missed opportunity
Before we get into the pigeon shooting, there’s news on the steel/lead shot debate that I want to highlight. We already know there is a five-year plan to move away from lead shot and the National Game Dealers’ Association recently announced that it would only accept fur and feather shot with non-lead shot from 1 June 2022. That will mean the majority of game dealers will insist on non-lead shot game and I’m sure the rest will follow. We know this change is coming, so perhaps it’s time we all embraced this change and tried alternatives.
I’ve already written about the Eley VIP steel shot with its eco wad, which works really well, and I’m sure it won’t be long before there are many similar offerings from other manufacturers. I am impressed by its killing power and sceptics may be pleasantly surprised too. Remember, you need to check the proof marks on your gun to make sure it’s safe for steel and remember not to use a choke any tighter than half. If in any doubt, check with your local gun dealer for advice, but do give it a go.
Good-size flock
Anyway. A good-sized flock of pigeons was destroying two small four-acre fields of rape on the farm. I knew I could had a fantastic day’s decoying if I could get at them. There were some major problems, though: there is a footpath up one side of one of the fields; a village backs on to both of the fields; and
the motorway runs along the side of the field without the footpath.
Shooting these two fields is therefore not an option. You’d be bound to upset at least one of the villagers with the noise or, even worse, end up having a visit from the police. Then you’d have to go through the rigmarole of explaining what you’re doing and pacifying the general public, as well as wasting valuable police time. You don’t need that hassle if you can avoid it.
The rape in the two fields is likely to be written off by the farm, but the pigeons still need controlling as they will start to work on the neighbouring 80-acre field when they clear the smaller ones. The larger field has been virtually untouched so far, except for a small patch in the corner by the motorway.
The difference couldn’t be more obvious – the damaged fields have ankle-high green plants and the larger one is full of yellowflowered rape about up to your knees. A farmer’s worst scenario is to have a field that has plants at different stages of
“I would have bound to upset one of the villagers and ended up having a visit from the police”
development. For the best harvest, they want all the plants to be of a similar size and to ripen at the same time. It’s just more efficient, productive and profitable.
Damage to rape at this time of year is possibly the biggest problem for the farm. If the pigeons damage the crop in the winter months, there is still the possibility that the smaller plants will catch up in the spring and their growing rate is slower in the winter, which keeps them more even. If there is a mild patch in the winter and the rape starts to grow too quickly, sometimes sheep will be used to graze it to hold the crop back and level it out, so that when it starts to bolt in the spring, the plants are all starting from a similar size.
My only realistic option was to try to move the flock into the larger field in the corner that had been damaged next to the motorway. I couldn’t use gas-guns or rope bangers because of the proximity of the village, so flagging the field off was the only way to disrupt and move the flock. Flags work well for a day or two at most, before the pigeons simply ignore them.
My plan was to put out flags on the day I was going to shoot the field to have the maximum impact. Just enough to unsettle the pigeons to get them to the hedge and tree line between the small fields and the larger one. Once they get to that to that point, they should spot my pattern and be fooled into thinking that’s where the flock is feeding. It’s only a matter of 150 yards, but it will mean they see the pattern.
Spin and flap
For flags, I use light, white bin bags with the yellow plastic drawcord. If you attach the draw cord to a pole and let the wind fill the bag, they spin and flap really well. I also parked my truck in one of the small fields for added visual disruption. I set up my hide with my back to the motorway, which was down a large embankment 75 yards or so away. This gave me a safe arc of fire over the damaged corner of the large field, though I still had to choose my birds wisely to make sure the shot birds didn’t catch the wind and fall on the motorway.
I didn’t have to wait long to find out if this set-up would work. The first flock of pigeons that headed back to the small fields from over the village were clearly confused by the flapping bags and my truck. They circled a couple of times before heading up to the tree line between the large and small fields. Three of them decided to head for my pattern in the damaged rape and I picked one off. This recurred throughout the next couple of hours, and the birds that arrived from over the motorway decoyed even better. In the end I picked 27 birds, which wasn’t a bad effort in the circumstances.
If I’d been able to shoot the small fields, that number would certainly have been higher, but that’s just not an option. So you make the best of what you’re given.
I collected my flags, as I’m sure these fields will keep giving me opportunities too thin out the pigeon population and the element of surprise is vital with flags. If I left them there, I’d have no way of disrupting the flock next time. It was a very frustrating decoying situation, but I think I made the best of it.