The seed of an idea

Peter Theobald had to put his thinking cap on when a large flock set its sights on a bountiful rape field

All good decoyers love it when a plan comes together but for it to happen requires a lot of, well, planning. It all started when I bumped into a local farmer who informed me that a few pigeons were beginning to take an interest in his rape. Though I had seen little evidence of significant numbers of birds on any of my farms growing rape, I promised to keep an eye on developments. It has been a perfect season for establishing rape, with healthy growth on every field, encouraging most farmers to take a relaxed view regarding their scaring regimes.

Normally, gas guns appear the minute a pigeon so much as flies over a poorly established crop of rape, but this year every field has knee-high, lush growth. With four fields to choose from, and most neighbouring farms also growing rape, I knew that any sortie was going to be extremely difficult. However, pigeon numbers grew alarmingly over the next few weeks, until we got to the point where I was expected to do something about it.

Pattern

Watching the fields daily to try to establish some kind of pattern, I was puzzled to notice a lot of birds sitting in the trees next to what looked like an old stubble. I assumed they were waiting to flight out to one of the rape fields, but then one day the pigeons were actually landing on the field, prompting a closer inspection. I was not prepared for what happened next: fully 500 birds exploded out of not stubble but a wild-bird crop that was stuffed with barley. Now I had an interesting situation because shooting the field was impossible due to its close proximity to houses and, curiously, big numbers of pigeons continued to use nearby rape fields. In all, there were probably in excess of 1,000 birds feeding in a relatively small area. There had to be a way of coming to terms with them.

When planning an outing on rape, it is essential to know where the birds might head once the shooting starts. In an ideal world, they will return to the field you have chosen but as we do not live in that utopia, I like to know what other options the pigeons have. So, for the next few days I walked the birds off their chosen field, returning later to see where they ended up until, eventually, a pattern emerged. Encouragingly, they did not vacate the entire area but preferred one of two rape fields and, of course, the barley. We just needed a windy day to execute the plan I had formed in my mind.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of picking the right weather to have your first go at pigeons on rape. They learn where other fields are very quickly and nothing educates them faster than banging away at large flocks on a still day.

Good conditions

At last, a 20mph wind was forecast, so 8.30am saw Paul and I watching the birds pouring into the tiny field of barley. Just to make sure they repeated what I had been seeing over the past few days, we intended to push the birds off the fields before setting

“Pigeons learn where other fields are very quickly”

up. Lighting a double rope banger to keep the pigeons off the field we could not cover, we returned to the barley to consider how Paul was going to deal with the situation. We both agreed his only option was to set up on a fallow field with his back to the barley and, more importantly, the houses. This was a big ask but at least the wind was in his favour and I had often seen pigeons resting here before popping over the hedge to feed.

Leaving him to it, I drove round to my field of choice to see birds already pouring back, keeping low in the strong wind. We had done everything we could and it was just a question of whether it would work. As often happens on rape, pigeons were on my decoys as soon as I sat down in my hide but I have had my optimism for a good day dashed when the flightline immediately stops or changes direction. Except today, it didn’t. Small parties showed their intentions as soon as they cleared a nearby main road, closing their wings to plummet into the pattern. Even with a good plan a bit of luck does not go amiss, so when a local game shoot could be heard in the distance, a new flightline developed, arriving downwind from behind. They too decoyed in spectacular fashion.

Paul was too far away for me to hear him but, after a slow start, he reported the birds were also flooding back to the barley. His shooting was a bit more difficult, however, as they were reluctant to commit to his pattern on the fallow field. But careful planning produced a combined bag of 160, so, all in all, a very satisfying day.