Stubble trouble

Any hope that things would improve on the decoying front when the harvest started were dealt a swift blow when I ventured out on to what looked like a sure-fire rape stubble field covered in pigeons.

It couldn’t have looked more promising: it was the first field to be harvested then rain stopped harvest for a few days. I’d been watching the 240-acre field and the number of pigeons feeding on it steadily increased. It has been a poor year in this area of East Anglia for pigeons and the flocks seem to be moving around in very large lumps, but are rarely seen