Time to turn up the heat

An early August heatwave ramps up the pressure but Tom Payne maximises his chances at pigeon on a baled pea field

- Tom Payne

I woke up on the morning of the Glorious Twelfth feeling a little morose that I wasn’t up north. However, life isn’t all bad. The woodpigeon has fared well and bred successfully this year, with a good chance of three broods — and even four — coming off one bird.

This has been a seriously early harvest. Some farmers around the Home Counties and further south have finished and many farmers in the outlying English counties are not far behind.

It’s the same issue with a harvest that happens all at once. With so many ‘restaurant doors’ open, it becomes a struggle to get a grip on managing numbers on farms and estates. I don’t, however, believe that to be the case this year, even though there have been thousands of acres’ worth of stubbles.

The early rape and winter barley stubbles didn’t shoot to their full potential because many birds were still obsessed with standing wheat. With these two crops coming off early and the wheat still being in its irresistible milky stage, why would birds suddenly change their food source? If the wheat was fit (ripe), the birds would move on to rape.

Rain

With the dry hot spell, the second wave of barley and rape did not shoot properly either. The wheat stubbles are again shooting very well but the pea and bean stubbles are needing some rain to entice the pigeon in.

We’ve had some extreme heat through early August and this has made shooting pigeon hard. Birds will not generally move to feed at all with extreme heat. They will tend to favour the cooler parts of the day so will move late afternoon.