Morning flight in a storm

[kent]

Very representative of a good flight on the saltmarsh. They don't term it "wildfowling weather" and "good weather for Ducks" for nothing

[silver pigeon 3]

Great video. Just a quick question on the hide location, did you have your back to anything ie a bank or were you set up on the flat?

[steve0146]

Great video. Just a quick question on the hide location, did you have your back to anything ie a bank or were you set up on the flat?

I was right out on the flat. The hide is small and only just big enough to hide the dog and me kneeling in the mud.

[Fal]

Exfellent! Some good shooting there, cracking dog too!!! Very, very jealous!!

Edited October 1, 2013 by Fal

[silver pigeon 3]

I was right out on the flat. The hide is small and only just big enough to hide the dog and me kneeling in the mud.

 

Thanks for that, i shoot a marsh up here that i have wondered about building a hide on the flat but didn't know if the birds would spook from it. Looks like it is well worth a go.

[nic]

Its often worth doing, as long as kept as low and small as possible... which marsh?

[Penelope]

Useful to have a small folding spade too, to dig out a foot hole if allowed, takes all that pressure off of the knees when kneeling. Only needs to be 18 inches deep by the same long and a little wider than your feet. And fill it back in after.

 

Its often worth doing, as long as kept as low and small as possible... which marsh?

Edited October 1, 2013 by Penelope

[Chad63]

No digging allowed on our estuary....

 

One of our members was in almost the same spot as Steve (in the video) one day last week. He had a net up and from about three hundred yards I could just about make it out. That was at 6pm, long before the sun went down, it's well worth doing.

[Grandalf]

 

 

He had a net up and from about three hundred yards I could just about make it out. That was at 6pm, long before the sun went down, it's well worth doing.

When you look at a hide you are looking parallel to the ground. When a bird looks at a hide it is looking down and sees it against the background of the earth, not the skyline.

If the colour of the hide and occupants match the surrounds and you break up the shape it is incredibly hard to make out.

The army throws camouflage nets over its vehicles. That breaks up the outline and covers up any shiny bits. However, if they are parked on a flat skyline then it sticks out like a sore thumb to anyone on the ground.

When parked in broken ground, bushes or in a natural dip in the ground it just vanishes.

Shape, shadow, shine, silhouette and stillness. The five Golden S's to good concealment.

When I was an army pilot of light spotting aircraft, way back in the days of yore, we used to take aerial photographs of other units attempts at camouflage. Amazing how the results differed between units. Some just hadn't a clue at what they were attempting to achieve.

Put your hide up in a place where you can look at it from above - out of a bedroom window or a tree - it looks totally different from on your feet.

Same applies to your decoys.