My great friend, Alex Keeble, who writes the Gamekeeper column for Shooting Times is blessed with classic old beech woods. Ever since I first visited him on the estate he works on, the huge tall spinneys dotted around the rolling country have never been far from my mind. Regular readers may remember a feature last year when we had a real red-letter day at Alex’s due to a hefty beech mast crop. Once again this year the woodland floor lay thick with mast and, as a result, Alex’s spot was like a sweet shop full to bursting with children who have been released after lockdown. When pigeon find beechmast they can become addicted to it; obsessed to a level of greed.
This can come back to bite them as they gorge themselves on it. I believe that when pigeon gorge like this on rough-shelled foods they can actually damage and tear their crops. This makes them vulnerable to the bacterial infection of canker, which is common when the wild harvest of acorns and beechmast is heavy.
There would have been at the peak upwards of 15,000 pigeon on the estate from November of last year to late January. We missed it by about two weeks but we still got close to the 200 mark in gale-force winds.
It was a Sunday morning in March — before the countrywide lockdown due to COVID-19 — and I was sorting out pigeon kit when the phone rang: Alex had pigeon on his patch, though nowhere near what we had last year. But he invited a couple of my friends and me to join a small team he’d put together for a good afternoon flighting and roosting.
Wrong track
Denne historien er fra April 08, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
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Denne historien er fra April 08, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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United we stand
Following United Utilities' decision to end grouse shooting on its land, Lindsay Waddell asks what will happen if we ignore our vital moors
Serious matters
An old gamebook prompts a contemplation on punt-gunning
They're not always as easy as they seem
While coneys of the furry variety don't pose a problem for Blue Zulu, he's left frustrated once again by bolting bunnies of the clay sort
Debutant gundogs
There's lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting
When the going gets rough
Al Gabriel returns to the West London Shooting School to brush up on his rough shooting technique
The Field Guide To British Deer - BDS 60th Anniversary Edition
In this excerpt from the 60th anniversary edition of the BDS's Field Guide To British Deer, Charles Smith-Jones considers the noise they make
A step too far?
Simon Garnham wonders whether a new dog, a new gun and two different fields in need of protection might have been asking too much for one afternoon's work
Two bucks before breakfast
A journey from old South London to rural Hertfordshire to stalk muntjac suggests that the two aren't as far detached as they might seem
Stalking Diary
Stalkers can be a sentimental bunch, and they often carry a huge attachment to their hill
Gamekeeper
Alan Edwards believes unique, private experiences can help keepers become more competent and passionate custodians of the countryside