M ROBSON

They will most definitely be picking new clover. Up here, along with clover, we also get them picking weeds in marshy pastures at this time of year. I've found birds before with Buttercup leafs in them.

I wonder how many people had bookings with him for the months to come? Their the ones I feel sorry for!

I was out for a good drive round yesterday an I don't think I've ever seen the pigeons in my area feeding on such a wide variety of fields. At the moment I've seen good numbers on the following, Barley stubble, Wheat stubble, Oat stubble, Bean stubble, Rape, Clover, Calibri, Old Potatoe fields, Old Cabbage fields, Stubble Turnips, Kale, And there just the ones I've seen them on round here!!

It just goes to show how they adapt to different areas of the country, around here they breed most of the winter and in the very snowy winters of 2009 and 2010 we were shooting young birds straight after the snow lifted, these were only weeks old and had hatched out just before the first snows yet were in fine condition. In 2010 I saw a woodie on a nest in the corner of a straw barn on Christmas eve. We have a lot of subsidised set aside with unharvested cerials and rape/kale fodder, they can keep feeding even in 2 foot of snow. I have never shot a pigeon on Ivy berries nor have I seen one eat any round here, they will spend most of the winter feeding on mainly stubbles, moving onto greens when it turns hard.

I bet there's not a Pigeon in the country that has died of starvation due to the snow we've just had.

I've been told by a local dealer that the new Hatsans have had a few alterations since they first came out, making them a lot more reliable.

Inland for geese over the decoys its been a good season so far. The ducks started off Ok, but with all the flooding it thinned them out. After the big freeze in Dec I havent bothered feeding most of my ponds, we've been flighting flooded fields instead. Been on the shore 6 or 7 times myself for about 15 geese.

I shot a Grey with a neck collar on the Tay about 15 years ago. It had been rung on Loch Eye, was spotted many times on Orkney over several years, but had never been seen further south than Tain..........until it was shot! Some of the ring recoveries taken from the resident Greys on Loch Leven have been reported to travel up to 30 miles in all direction during the winter months. They spend most of their time around the loch but the ringing has proven that they do move about at certain times. Cheers, Mark

A young woodie will start to get it's neck spot at 3 months old, you will see just a few feathers turning to start with. In my area Woodies have changed their habbits to nest in the suburbs and take advantage of evergreen trees in back gardens, feeding from bird tables. Some of our biggest flightlines no longer come from the large pine woods, now they come from the towns. In the last 10 years it has become very comon to see young birds right through the winter months, even after long spells of cold snowy weather. Young bird shot in January 2010 after 3 weeks of sub-zero temperatures. Young woodie in the snow. by mj robson, on Flickr Young birds shot in January 2011 after 5 weeks of sub-zero temperatures. Young birds after 5 weeks of cold! by mj robson, on Flickr

I'm sure you don't need planning if the pond is less than 2 feet deep, which most duck ponds will be.

About twice the price.

I did the course a couple of weeks ago at Trochry, after we passed and got our certificates, we were given a form to fill in and send to the police with a passport photo and have to pay them an extra £20 before we get our ID number. How did you manage to get round the police admin fee? Cheers, Mark

Giving him a bit of valuable advice from someone who knows, maybe save him from being sued by one of his clients one day!

Ija4569, If you are catering for paying clients YOU must have liability insurance, mine costs me £700+ PA.

Go check out Macleod's for some Winchester Drylok's, will do the same as any Remingtons.

When you've got an hours walk in chest waders the lighter gun is certainly a plus. When it comes to factory loads the 10 probably has the edge but when dealing with homeloads there is no difference. Inland flighting with my Xtrema and a .675" Terror choke loaded with a homeloaded 3.5" cheddite, 2 1/4 oz of 4's pushed out at 1250fps by longshot will smash geese at 60 yards every time. That load got so much success dozens of guys now use it.

POOF!!!! .

I wouldn't bother much about getting chokes bored out, it's all a lot of ****. I used nothing but a 10g for 12 season on the foreshore doing 70+ flights a season. Me and my mate put dozens of lbs of hevi shot and steel through full choked Zabalas, Lincolns and Ithacas with no ill effects at all to the barrels. Now I use a 3.5" 12g and get the same results from a gun that weighs 4lb lighter. Cheers, Mark.

Why would anyone tie geese into pairs in the field and then put them in a big bag? Sounds to me like they've been hung up in a chiller or larder, then for whatever reason, dumped in a field to get rid of them. Probably had a slaughter and had to many to deal with more like!! I once heard a story of a group of farmers from Orkney who grouped together to corral around 600 flightless Greys in the summer time, necked them all, and burried them with a JCB. I wonder if this made the radio?? This does bring up an important point though. If the SNH get their way and manage to arrange the cull of 5500 resident Greys in a month, what are they going to do with them all? Mark.

The last skien before we packed up after a good flight this morning. http://www.flickr.co...son/8147583262/ .

Robert, You seemed rather quick to dismiss this method of picking out younger birds dispite only recently learning about this trait. I've been using this for 20+ years on both resident and Icelandic birds and I can assure you it is definately reliable. Do you ever get Icelandic Greys in Norfolk? As I have mentioned above it takes several years for this nail to grow out and a goose can breed at 3, so it is quite possible for a breeding bird to have a black nail. Yet in comparison to the birds at the top end of the Greylag lifespan (30 years) still be classed as young birds, in my book anyway. Here is a pic I took of 4 greys we shot this week. With a couple of this years birds on the left, a bird of about 3 years in the middle and a birds I would guess to be about 5 on the right. You can see the change from yellow to orange and also the black tip growing out on the older birds. I don't doubt that some Greys do not have any dark nail at all, but a good number do. IMG_0029 by mj robson, on Flickr

Terry, From what I've heard all the major east coast roosts are full up with Pinks just now, I haven't been up the Tay yet but I'm sure the usual spots will be the same.

Only ever shot 1 Gadwall, it was on the Tay about 20 years ago, decoyed a treat into my floating goose deeks.

Get a good quality second had scope, stick with a fixed mag for your first scope, you'll get more scope for your £

Not so, the birds in the top pic are Icelandic greylags shot on the Cromarty firth. As I said, It doesn't make any difference if they are resident or migratory birds, or what area they come from. I believe that it takes a couple of years for this tip to grow out as you will find birds with a lesser darkening than others, almost like when you bruise your thumbnail and it grows out. I've used this method for years, once you know what your looking for it's quite easy to tell them apart. Let us know how you get on.