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where have they gone?


AberFowl
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I am wondering if we should be expecting some change in the weather or something similar.

I haven't known the geese dessert the area like this before. Usually have a good 10k throughout the winter roosting between the estuary and loch a few miles up from it

 

There is a full moon tonight , your geese have perhaps stayed out feeding under it rather than heading back to roost , that would explain why you have not seen many.

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Yes with the moon many will of stayed out feeding but I haven't seen any good numbers over the last few days anywhere in the area. Its unusal to not see skeins of geese about all around the area I work.

We usually have a skein over at least every half hour but the lad few days there hasn't been half that!

I'm up north this week around nigg bay, with the wind speed and the moon they would rather hunker down under the crest of a big field than sit the shore out, more chance bagging duck on the afternoon tides with a 60mph Westerly wind.

Not a breath of wind to speak of here this evening, did bag a brace of tall mallard though!
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At the moment we are the other way round as there are more Geese than ducks using the marshes , yesterday I had one of the members on hear with me and I showed him four fields together that were covered in Pinks , we didn't count them but I would have thought well into four figures .

 

 

We went on my marshes for duck and saw next to nothing , I did manage to shoot a Widgeon but that was it , yet during the week I went twice at night where the Geese had been feeding and shot one each night as they were going off , and today they have put gas guns and flags on so maybe you might get them back .

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Goose guides up in aberdeenshire shooting stupid amounds of geese each morning early on in the season have pushed the geese further down south! I know a few of them and they were shooting 50+ a morning the week the pinks started arriving. I feel this has pushed the, down as they havent had time to settle.

What will anyone do with 50+ geese? Supposing it was a party of eight its at least 6 geese per Gun. No doubt someone will correct me but putting the old memory back a decade or four, was it not once considered bad practice to :-

 

(a) Use decoys on inland feeding grounds for geese.

 

( b ) Shoot geese on their roosting grounds.

 

Blackpowder

Edited by Blackpowder
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What will anyone do with 50+ geese? Supposing it was a party of eight its at least 6 geese per Gun. No doubt someone will correct me but putting the old memory back a decade or four, was it not once considered bad practice to :-

 

(a) Use decoys on inland feeding grounds for geese.

 

( b ) Shoot geese on their roosting grounds.

 

Blackpowder

I think (a) is common practice and the other is bad practice and frowned upon and 50 birds is wrong in my opinion

Edited by islandgun
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I think (a) is common practice and the other is bad practice and frowned upon and 50 birds is wrong in my opinion

If that is 50 between eight I do not feel that it is way over the top , i would guess a lot that are out with guides only shoot geese for that particular week a year so in reality will shoot less than a local who is out a few times a week throughout the season .

In a ideal world there would be a bag limit but who would police it , I think most true fowlers have their own sometimes in addition to the rules of the club they may be in .

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If that is 50 between eight I do not feel that it is way over the top , i would guess a lot that are out with guides only shoot geese for that particular week a year so in reality will shoot less than a local who is out a few times a week throughout the season .

In a ideal world there would be a bag limit but who would police it , I think most true fowlers have their own sometimes in addition to the rules of the club they may be in .

good point, who can deny someone the right to shoot more as a one off, I would feel uncomfortable with it personally, perhaps the guides could show more restraint, with an emphasis on field craft etc, I have never been with a guide so am probably talking out my a........e.

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good point, who can deny someone the right to shoot more as a one off, I would feel uncomfortable with it personally, perhaps the guides could show more restraint, with an emphasis on field craft etc, I have never been with a guide so am probably talking out my a........e.

My opinion is that the guides should be licenced and they should have bag limit included in the contract they take out with the client .

Some i know have limits but as every tom , **** or harry can call themselves a goose guide if they so wish them there will always be those to whom the cash is more important than the ethics.

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I'm up north this week around nigg bay, with the wind speed and the moon they would rather hunker down under the crest of a big field than sit the shore out, more chance bagging duck on the afternoon tides with a 60mph Westerly wind.

Leave some for me for when I get back home, are you going up the the Firth this time up ? I havent seen to many in the past week around Dornoch / Golspie areas but there was still plenty toward Beauly and near Dingwall. I am offshore now so I cant give you an update although my mate (in the wheel chair) has had some sucess with decoying in nearby fields.

 

BBL

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Leave some for me for when I get back home, are you going up the the Firth this time up ? I havent seen to many in the past week around Dornoch / Golspie areas but there was still plenty toward Beauly and near Dingwall. I am offshore now so I cant give you an update although my mate (in the wheel chair) has had some sucess with decoying in nearby fields.

did me recon last night Lindsay, plenty still around , not been up your way to Dornoch might go for the duck when the winds hit.

Edited by shakin stevens
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I would say so, seen the lot clear out in that heavy snow 4 years ago, went from thousands lifting from the shore in a blizzard to a handful in the next morning.

That may well be the case, but I think that geese can clear an area for any number of reasons. I have known many occasions when there have been thousands on the roost, only for the moon or a day of fog perhaps, cause the geese to move away.

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