Pigeon season

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Pigeon season
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Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:06 am Post subject:
First thing? have yourself at the kitchen window with cup of tea and air rifle for early dawn???

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:10 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

First thing? have yourself at the kitchen window with cup of tea and air rifle for early dawn???

Will they already ahve fledged then?

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:14 am Post subject:
There seem to be plenty of youngsters flying around me with blushing pink breasts, but as for mating season I haven't really a clue.

crackapple

Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 204
Location: teeside

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:17 am Post subject:
it doesn't matter if they are pests. find the nest and get yourself some squabs.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:22 am Post subject:

crackapple wrote:

it doesn't matter if they are pests. find the nest and get yourself some squabs.

That's the problem, I don't know where the nests are so can't check if there are any youngsters there. We just get flocks of adults in the garden and they are looking nice and plump at the moment.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 11:34 am Post subject:
Not sure about the exact pigeon numbers in the UK, 13 million?? But I guess that you'll never be entirely sure you aren't orhaning chicks unless you shoot in autumn/winter. It's worse with rabbits, I've taken ones well out of the supposed mating season which have young in them.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 12:08 pm Post subject:
But has anyone actually ever seen a baby pigeon They come out fully fledged don't they

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 12:10 pm Post subject:

Penny wrote:

But has anyone actually ever seen a baby pigeon

They come out fully fledged don't they

Oven ready??

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 12:20 pm Post subject:

Penny wrote:

But has anyone actually ever seen a baby pigeon

They come out fully fledged don't they

I remeber a nest in an apple tree in our garden when I grew up, I saw the chicks grow and fledge but can't remember when they flew the nest.

Nick J

Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 94

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 1:13 pm Post subject:

With our milder climate now it is generally accepted I believe that pigeons now breed more or less all year. There is a tailing off in the winter months but if the weather is mild then they will be producing youngsters well into the autumn.

As for the regs. Yes they have to be considered a pest (strictly all birds are protected but some have their protected status removed on an annual basis because it is recognised that they can be a destructive species) but if you grow veg which they feed on that criteria is met. The only problem is if some nosey neighbour complains about you popping the odd bird for the pot. I keep a copy of the open licence handy should anyone complain. As things stand you can't just take a pigeon for the pot on the grounds that you fancy pigeon for your lunch.

I would also say that if anyone is thinking of using an air rifle in their garden it is imperative you have a safe back stop for the pellet and that the pellet does not cross your boundary. The latter being a legal requirement, the former obviously common sense from a safety perspective. You may have seen the reports in the paper this week of a lad home from university having put his mum in hospital (on the critical list) as a result of her getting a pellet in the neck while he was target shooting and unaware she was in the garden.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 1:28 pm Post subject:
I think that you'll find that Woodies are at it for most of the year but not quite to the extent that rabbits are ! They slow down a bit in winter but I've come across baby rabbits in December and January !

Colin & Jan

Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203
Location: Dover, Kent

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 5:44 pm Post subject:

Woodpigeon shooting continues under an open general licence issued by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions for England and Wales, the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department for Scotland and the Environment and Heritage Service for N. Ireland. No individual application is required for any licence. Therefore they can be shot by anyone who has permission to shoot over the land or where it is considered safe to do so.

I try not to shoot them between May and Sept unless they are causing real damage to crops because that is when the bulk of the youngster are born/fledging.

Pigeons build a simple flat nest of sticks and lay 2 white eggs which hatch into the ugliest youngsters. It is generally accepted that there is one male and female in each clutch of eggs (thats where the expression pigeon pair comes from). In the early days they are fed by the parents on a milky substance made from regurgatated corn/seeds/buds.

The old method was to find a nest with youngsters and tie their legs to the branches. When they were fat enough you would go round and collect them before they fledged.

Regards
Colin

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 06 6:31 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the comments everyone, looks like I'll wait until September then.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 06 3:50 pm Post subject:

Pah - sentimental poltroon! I'm afraid I have no such qualms as far as the marauding flying Hoovers are concerned.
If anyone is shooting pigeon - or crows, or Canada geese or indeed any other pest/vermin species and gets sniffy comments from neighbours or walkers, they might care to download a copy of the general licence from the Defra site here. If nothing else, it gives a semblance of officialdom to your shooting.

Snap Cap

Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 553
Location: Outside a warren armed to the teeth.

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 06 6:51 pm Post subject:
The best laugh I had was when two walkers saw the guns and then tried to shoo the decoys into the air. I admit the best time to shoot pigeon is now September but I am out this Weekend on a forege and will not think ywice if one flies within range.

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