A rich harvest on the stubble

When the first rape fields are cut you can have some of the easiest decoying of the year – and some great sport to boot – to help protect the unharvested fields. There’s something about the rape stubble that pigeons seem to adore. I hazard that the small black seeds are full of calories, which they find irresistible.

Heads up

I had a situation a month or so ago that illustrates this perfectly. I’d been watching a field of standing rape that had become popular with the local woodies. They had been feeding on this field for a couple of days, landing on top of the rape and in the tramlines. They were obviously comfortable and had only been disturbed by a gas