Wilier wood bird

Over the past couple of hundred years it would be fair to say that changes in agriculture, particularly its intensification, have been the biggest factor in reshaping rural Britain. The influence of these changes on flora and fauna has been huge, as has the effect on shooting.

The removal of miles of hedgerows has had a big impact on grey partridge populations and ponds being filled in has done for much of our duck shooting, but the life of the pigeon shooter has been affected too. The fortunes of my favourite quarry species are completely bound up in farming. Weather aside, nothing else influences their behaviour like changing agricultural practices.

By reading old issues of , and the great sporting books such as the series — and, crucially, learning from the pigeon-shooting old guard — I have developed