Driving a little too fast along the lanes of Dorset, you are unlikely to complete a journey without striking a few wood pigeons. With the harvest gathered in, even greater numbers of birds are around, hoping to glean spilled corn in the fields and on the roads.
For the farmers that shoot them, pigeons are not game, like partridges. They are the enemy. Shooting pigeons is not a pursuit; it is pure revenge for all the damage they have done to your crops earlier in the year. As a keen gardener, I’d like a pop at them myself.