Wood Pigeon Cull (1 Viewer)

[paulwfromtheden]

My mum lives in West Dorset and on Saturday she heard a load of shooting going on in the fields behind where she lives.
She got pretty distressed as she thought it was people illegally shooting Pheasants and Partridges, so she shot up to where the noise was coming from and was told by the gamekeeper that this was the annual wood pigeon cull.
This was later confirmed by the landowner.
My worry with these culls is that a lot of farmland birds (linnets, corn buntings) get caught in the crossfire.
Is this a common practice on farms in the west country?

 

[alan_rymer]

My mum lives in West Dorset and on Saturday she heard a load of shooting going on in the fields behind where she lives.
She got pretty distressed as she thought it was people illegally shooting Pheasants and Partridges, so she shot up to where the noise was coming from and was told by the gamekeeper that this was the annual wood pigeon cull.
This was later confirmed by the landowner.
My worry with these culls is that a lot of farmland birds (linnets, corn buntings) get caught in the crossfire.
Is this a common practice on farms in the west country?

Its common prctice on a lot of arable farms all over the country.
I doubt if any other birds get caught in the "crossfire".
Decoys are placed and and some of the shot pigeons are laid out as if a flock of pigeons are feeding. This attracts other curious hungry pigeons over. Its hard to mistake a pigeon coming in to land as anything else, especially a small finch.

 

[Pam_m]

My mum lives in West Dorset and on Saturday she heard a load of shooting going on in the fields behind where she lives.
She got pretty distressed as she thought it was people illegally shooting Pheasants and Partridges, so she shot up to where the noise was coming from and was told by the gamekeeper that this was the annual wood pigeon cull.
This was later confirmed by the landowner.
My worry with these culls is that a lot of farmland birds (linnets, corn buntings) get caught in the crossfire.
Is this a common practice on farms in the west country?

Yesterday morning we heard gunfire going off for well over an hour, almost continously. We presumed it was something to do with Woodpigeons.
It didn't make for a very pleasant morning in the garden.

 

[Jane Turner]

I do wonder why they do this. If it was simply to eat them fine. I've heard it suggested a. that there is a need to contol the population....
b. that culling controls the population.

Not sure that (a) is defensible and its well known that the Woodpigeon populations recover within a single breeding year. I've often thought that Woodpigeon is probably the most sustainable form of producing protein in NW Europe!

 

[Otto McDiesel]

My worry with these culls is that a lot of farmland birds (linnets, corn buntings) get caught in the crossfire.

How do you know this?

 

[paulwfromtheden]

How do you know this?

I dont. Hence the post.

 

[KnockerNorton]

I do wonder why they do this. If it was simply to eat them fine. I've heard it suggested a. that there is a need to contol the population....
b. that culling controls the population.

Not sure that (a) is defensible and its well known that the Woodpigeon populations recover within a single breeding year. I've often thought that Woodpigeon is probably the most sustainable form of producing protein in NW Europe!

It does nothing to cull, it's an exercise in farmers flexing muscle over their 'rights' to control 'vermin' and also a nice social day out.

And don't you believe for a second that many a sparrowhawk and buzzard doesn't get quietly, and very deliberately, caught in the crossfire. I've had that from the horses' mouth.

I eat plenty of pigeons so aren't too worried or hypocriticla about it in theory; if farmers want to do it they are currently entitled to on their own land, pointless as it is. What annoys me is that last year a local NNR was closed for this purpose for the weekend, to pander to the local landowners.

 

[Johnny1]

I think it dates back to when crops were harvested manually and the wood pigeons would eat large amounts of grain etc. so they were treated as vermin - and still are.

 

[citrinella]

I think it dates back to when crops were harvested manually and the wood pigeons would eat large amounts of grain etc. so they were treated as vermin - and still are.

I suspect the suggestion that culling makes no lasting difference is correct.

Wood pigeons still can do a lot of damage to vulnerable crops.

Vegetables like Peas and Brassicas - they love them. Haven't you heard gardeners complaining about the pigeons coming into their garden and destroying peas / cabbages / cauliflower / broccoli etc ? They can flock in their thousands in open fields and do real damage - destroying significant areas of crop. This is a common problem with winter oil seed rape in the UK - food is a bit harder to come by, so they concentrate on such an available source. Winter vegetables (brassicas) are simialrly vulnerable.

Exposed seed - if conditions hinder good coverage of seed, pigeons will pickmit up. Again, thousands can flock and once the seed is gone, it's gone. I had one field very badly affected the first year I was farming, great strips up the field with almost no crop following difficult sowing conditions.

I hate shooting, but it simply is not possible to scare pigeons away without some shooting. Bird scarers that go bang ! lose their scare factor if there are never any consequences. So some shooting is necesary. The objective then is to move the pigeons on - no, we recognize it is unrealistic to kill a significant proportion of the flock, killing is not really the farmers' objective. The people who do the shooting have to be motivated though. These are usually local sportsman who do it because they enjoy it. For them, bag size is important. If pigeons get the idea that a field is good, it can take a couple of days shooting to deter them. I suspect that is because what we see as one flock is actually a moving complex - lots of different birds joining and leaving.

So where are we trying to move them on to ? Other food sources, to the individual farmer, it doesn't matter so it could be (usually is) another farmer's crop.

I have tried to get a falconer to shift them with a peregrine. Basically there wasn't one within reasonable distance, so they couldn't afford the time necessary. The only one that came really wanted to fly at partridge :-(

I am not the only bird feeder that finds pigeons a nuisance either. A friend in Edinburgh gets up to 70 (including wood pigeon) if he puts feed down in his garden and complains how much they eat. I feed 3 or 4 tonnes each winter on my and another local farm. much of that is taken by unwelcome guests - pigeons, crows, pheasants, rabbits. The latter are at least attractive to the buzzards, but the buzzards are not efficient enough ! There are rodents too, but not too many - they are worth it for the stoats, kestrel, buzzard, owls etc. I don't shoot pigeons here. I discussed it with a local pigeon shooter and he said he wouldn't dream of trying for fear of hitting tweets. I'd hope the other pigeon shooters would also be concerned about non-target species.

Mike.

Competing interests - yes, I am a farmer

 

[Otto McDiesel]

yes, I am a farmer

And you have common sense and a reasonable and healthy attitude.

On this side of the pond, squirells and deer eat everything we plant or seed. There were years when we had over $6000 in damage to our crops. So, we eat the critters instead.

 

[saluki]

My mum lives in West Dorset and on Saturday she heard a load of shooting going on in the fields behind where she lives.
She got pretty distressed as she thought it was people illegally shooting Pheasants and Partridges, so she shot up to where the noise was coming from and was told by the gamekeeper that this was the annual wood pigeon cull.
This was later confirmed by the landowner.
My worry with these culls is that a lot of farmland birds (linnets, corn buntings) get caught in the crossfire.
Is this a common practice on farms in the west country?

Hi Paul,

I wouldn't worry too much. I shot woodpigeon for many years and never shot anything accidentally, apart from, occasionally, another woodpigeon. Stock doves are probably most at risk because of their similarity to woodies, but are easy to id in flight with a little experience.

There isn't really an 'annual cull' as such Paul, pigeon are shot throughout the year. What it sounds like to me was an organised roost shoot where many guns get together to cover as much woodland as possible as the woodies come in to roost, this keeps the birds moving and increases the numbers shot.

My experience of woodpigeon shooters is a little different to Poecils. Most pigeon shooting around this area is done on unkeepered arable farms, all the farmers I know would be mortified if they thought someone had shot a raptor on their land. They'd be kicked off the land forthwith and would struggle to find another farmer willing to allow them to shoot within the area.

Pam, what you heard sounds more like a clay pigeon shoot. Although woodpigeon shooting can become hectic, it's not normally continuous for an hour or so. Clay pigeon traps are mobile, sometimes a group of friends decided to bust some clays and set the trap up in a field somewhere. Some of my mates used to do it quite regularly, though I'm useless at hitting clays for some reason.

Jonathan

 

[Mary Evelyn]

We have had a clay pigeon shooting club here,twice a week for as long as i remember.This goes on for around 2 hours and it certainly sounds the same but is not disturbing at all, because we know its only clay.

 

[Pam_m]

Hi Paul,

I wouldn't worry too much. I shot woodpigeon for many years and never shot anything accidentally, apart from, occasionally, another woodpigeon. Stock doves are probably most at risk because of their similarity to woodies, but are easy to id in flight with a little experience.

There isn't really an 'annual cull' as such Paul, pigeon are shot throughout the year. What it sounds like to me was an organised roost shoot where many guns get together to cover as much woodland as possible as the woodies come in to roost, this keeps the birds moving and increases the numbers shot.

My experience of woodpigeon shooters is a little different to Poecils. Most pigeon shooting around this area is done on unkeepered arable farms, all the farmers I know would be mortified if they thought someone had shot a raptor on their land. They'd be kicked off the land forthwith and would struggle to find another farmer willing to allow them to shoot within the area.

Pam, what you heard sounds more like a clay pigeon shoot. Although woodpigeon shooting can become hectic, it's not normally continuous for an hour or so. Clay pigeon traps are mobile, sometimes a group of friends decided to bust some clays and set the trap up in a field somewhere. Some of my mates used to do it quite regularly, though I'm useless at hitting clays for some reason.
Jonathan

You may well be right Jonathan, the gunfire was continous and several firing at any one time. It sounded a bit like a war zone to me! Perhaps it is something that we shall have to get used to on a Sunday morning, we have never heard anything like it before and we have lived here for over 30 Years.