The Mighty Oak

An iconic element of the great British landscape and an essential food source for wild creatures, the oak can, when the timing is right, provide some great pigeon shooting

- Andy Crow

Late autumn is a time that lifts the spirits of many a shooter. The game season is in full swing, the countryside looks magnificent in its red and gold finery and for Andy Crow, this is prime time for pigeon shooting.

“This time of year, especially on a cold, clear morning, we get thousands of birds moving through – some almost certainly migrating to warmer climes, some probably just heading south for richer pickings as the weather turns colder,” Andy says. “On some days I see literally tens of thousands of birds. It’s an amazing sight.

“One of the key things that will attract birds to this area and hold some of the passing birds, is acorns. There is no guarantee that any given year will be a good one – as a late frost or two can really affect them – but this year has seen a belting crop of acorns and here in the south east we have a lot of deciduous woodland where oaks thrive and that means literally tonnes of acorns.

“Obviously squirrels love ‘em. The deer do, too (although in high quantities they can be toxic) and so do the pigeons.”

So with thousands of new birds in the locale and a massive food supply on hand, surely this is a guarantee of pigeon shooting success? “Well it’s not quite that easy,” he says.

Of course it isn’t… We are setting up a hide on the fringes of a rape field. The pheasants and pigeons have stunted the growth around a woody shaw brimming with oaks leaving a belt of clear-ish ground extending 15-20 yards into the field. There are mounds of acorns, even after the attentions of the birds for the past few weeks. Andy uses bracken fronds to adorn his netting and the effect is amazing – the hide just melts into the landscape, with the green/gold leaves providing superb camouflage.