I can tell you, 90% of the time, where I missed when I do. I.e., I can tell you if I was too far ahead, too far behind, etc. It's harder if I shot too high, as that is usually caused by lifting your head off the stock to get a better look, and is hard to diagnose in yourself. But, without an awareness of lead there is no way to do this.
When you shoot sporting clays seriously it becomes very important to be able to diagnose your mistakes that made you miss, and make corrections. If you miss a bird on the first pair, and you cannot remember what your lead looked like, you have no idea if you need more or less lead, or if you were off line above or below. I learned to remember the sight picture when I was an iron sight rifle and pistol competitor, and it has carried over into sporting clays. So important to be able to remember where your muzzle was when the gun went off. If you hit the bird you know to do the exact same thing again. If you missed it, you know that you need to change something. How can you do either if you can't remember what the lead looked like?
I am a serious dove shooter, too, often going to the field all alone. I hate to miss, and analyze my misses critically. It's really the only way to improve very much. Lest anyone get the idea that all this takes the fun out of it for me, let me assure you that is not the case, as anyone who has shot with me will attest.
SRH
