Michael Tyler

For those familiar with the matter…..

I’m a bit of a hunter gatherer type. I like the appeal of free fayre springing up round and about in the countryside, the fresh fruit and vegatables that any tom, dick or harry can pick up for free. Left to grow, cultivate themselves and continue the Saṃsāra of life.

It’s natures way….
Previous posts:
https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/can-you-eat-fairy-ring-mushrooms/

Wood Pigeon

Imagine my delight when I saw this sight above Bonnie Lady at 7am this morning.

Now I know woodpigeon is very tasty with new potatos, fresh vegatables, maybe a little gravy and beans.

Like all the other things in nature this one was free, fresh and organic.

Unlike meats we buy in the supermarket, this one had had a free and gainful life around the countryside; flying, mating, eating the farmers crops, just doing the general things that pigeons do.

A gainful existance.

Free.

Bird on a wire

I am the owner of an S410, which for those who don’t know, is an air rifle.

It’s quite a good air rifle. Probably the best air rifle, certainly at one point in time.

It’s a PCP, which means compressed air fueled. Like a bullet rifle, there is no cocking of barrels and compressing of springs as with a traditional air rifle.

You simply pull back the cocking level, a pellet drops into the chamber from the cartridge, and the gun is loaded.

Loading is simple.

I took my gun from the rack, pulled the bolt and moved to the rear hatch of the boat.

The pigeon was still sitting, resting, gently preening itself in the morning sun, oblivious to my appearance at the hatch and the rifle pointing at it.

As I raised the barrell, it was possible to rest the stock on the side edge of the hatch, steadying the rifle, and providing the prefect shot.

I levelled the sight toward the pigeon’s body.

The pigeon was seeing nothing, but it’s view from the wire and the fields and hedges below it, all happy in the morning sun.

Head or heart

Targetwise, there’s only two ways to do things. Head or heart.

With the pigeon turning it’s head slightly as it was preening it’s body, the heart appealed as the steadier and better shot.

I dropped the sights accordingly to point directly at the centre of it’s chest.

Just in the milliseconds before pulling the trigger, the thought ran through my mind, “do i really want to kill this animal?”, just for a millisecond….

My mind whispered back, “you’ll regret it more if you don’t do it”.

And there we go.

The bird fell from the wire like a stone.

I walked around the farmers field under the wire and picked it up, put it in a bag, and brought it back to the boat.

Dinner sorted.

Died quickly…

Shot straight through the heart.

Prep

Apparentely, you have to prepare the pigeon by chilling it in the cooler, then later, slicing off it’s breasts.

I have a pinic cooler from Halfords, it can stay in there until this evening when I’ll be preparing it with some fava beans, and a nice chianti.

😉