News Shooting

Some of the pigeon in my bag were a different type!

Pigeon shooting: Last year I had three outings on rape in December which produced a reasonable number of birds, some of which were a little smaller, and darker, than the others.

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What?s the reason for such a noticeable difference?

PIGEON SHOOTING
Peter Theobald
This old chestnut surfaces with monotonous regularity every year.

It stems from the fact that young woodies – ie smaller, and without the white neck bar – start to gather in their winter flocks, often turning up in a district overnight.

These flocks could sometimes be seen arriving across the coast, leading locals to believe that those ?furriners? had turned up again.

Once again I reiterate, there is no sub species of woodpigeon that is smaller or darker, that visit our shores.

Funny thing is, nobody has ever witnessed these same birds travelling back the other way in the springtime.