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Managing woodpigeon numbers to prevent crop damage makes driven pheasant shooting seem like a modern craze. All the way back in the mid-17th century, Gilbert White, Britain’s first naturalist, wrote of the importance of controlling woodies where turnips are being grown. Back then, they used muzzle-loaders and were therefore unable to shoot on the wing. Consequently, he writes of the effectiveness of shooting birds at roost and decoying stubbles using hand-carved decoys made from ash and beech.

Moving into the 19th century, renowned game Shot Lord Walsingham discussed decoying, roosting and flighting to prevent crop damage in the volume of the Badminton library, published