Shooting Times & Country

The first feathers

I’ve managed a few outings and a bit of roost shooting but otherwise it has been a quiet winter. Thanks to Mother Nature, there’s been wild food everywhere, which has kept the destructive rural pest off the crops and out of harm’s way. There was a good beechmast this year which kept the pigeon occupied for a bit. Then the acorns dragged on and lately I’ve been seeing pigeon devouring ivy berries, but the numbers have been sparse and I do wonder if we may have lost a population of birds to France. Perhaps they are down there in those vast oak forests. It’s speculation but I think there might be truth in the theory that due to a lack of winter rape as a holding crop and major food source

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