Sooner later your luck will change.

[anser2]

One thing I have learnt about wildfowling is that if you are having a bad run sooner or later your luck will change.

Wildfowling in my area has been very poor for the past two months and after a number of flights only a brace of wigeon and a hen teal had found their way into my game bag. Mid week I had been flighting on a Broadland marsh with some good looking flashes and not seen a bird. I was back again in the Broads on Friday morning flighting pinks close to Breydon. About 400 came over my marsh, but all too high, though I had only seen 3 duck. The evening flight again was on some flooded marshland a few miles away. I set a couple of decoys on a pool and awaited the flight. Only two duck came, mallard I thought in the darkness as they flashed past, but it was a hen gadwall that the dog retrieved after a brief chase. That was it for the flight, but at last my long run of blank flights had been stopped.

 

The next morning a mate and I planed to decoy some pinks on a small marsh. There was a problem though. The area where the pinks had been feeding was only a few hundred yards from the roost so we only expected one, or at best a couple of chances as our shots would put the geese up. Its not good practice to shoot so close to a roost , but we knew the local estate was going to do a duck flight on the roost site a couple of days later so the geese were going to be moved on anyway. There was a small flash on the meadow where we wanted to set up the decoys and to our surprise a very big bunch of mallard got off the water as we approached. We got the decoys setup in good time and it was great sitting in the side of a dyke and watching the dawn unfold while our ears were full of goose talk from the roost. A bunch of about 30 jumped and without any caution came straight into the decoys, giving easy chances. I killed one and set another planing away to crash into some reeds a hundred yards off. My mate also got a pink. At our shots the main bunch of pinks got up and came over, but they were higher, though still within shot, just. I could have had a couple of reasonable shots, but they were just wide of my mate so I left them to swing around into the decoys. When they did so they were too wide for me to have a shot and my mate missed. Still never mind there were still more geese, both pinks and greylags on the roost. 20 geese hedgehopped over the tops of the reeds on set wings, heading for the decoys. I went up to shoot when I realised they the two birds I picked were Egyptian geese. Swinging off them I searched for a pink in the skien, but by the time I realised the whole flock were Egyptians the moment for a shot was gone and they passed unscathed. A high bunch of pinks appeared coming in off the estuary. We both turned around to try and call them when a shout from my mate made look back. 40 pinks were just swinging away out of shot over the decoys. They had come in silently while we were trying to call the high birds. By now the sun was just brushing the skyline when following a chorus of calls the greylag were up. A hundred or more passed wide to our right heading for some distant feeding grounds, by there were two outriders that would pass 40 yards to my left. It was obvious they were flying fast, very fast so I gave one a huge lead and fired. Its staggered fell, but recovered just before hitting the ground flying very low across the reeds. By now it was obvious the flight had finished so we set out to look for this bird and the pink that had planed down earlier on. Meg my lab quickly found the pink , but we could find no sign of the greylag. Still after my drought of birds this winter I was more than happy with my brace of pinks.

 

We decided to return to the flash at dusk in the hopes that the big bunch of mallard we had flushed this morning might return. As the sun set the pinks started to return to our surprise. Obviously our shooting this morning had not disturbed them badly. A number came right over us , but all just out of range. A few early mallard appeared and my mate quickly had a couple in the bag. But in nothing like the number we had flushed this morning. But there were plenty of other duck on the move. Though they came late so late that we could only just make out their dark shadows against the dark side of the sky duck poured into the flash. The flight ended up with 2 mallard 4 gadwall and 8 wigeon in the bag and despite the poor conditions for once both of us shot quite well , 21 shots for 14 duck shot in near pitch black was good for my standards and not a duck lost.

 

[Penelope]

Nice to read on a boring Monday afternoon anser.

 

 

One thing I have learnt about wildfowling is that if you are having a bad run sooner or later your luck will change.

Wildfowling in my area has been very poor for the past two months and after a number of flights only a brace of wigeon and a hen teal had found their way into my game bag. Mid week I had been flighting on a Broadland marsh with some good looking flashes and not seen a bird. I was back again in the Broads on Friday morning flighting pinks close to Breydon. About 400 came over my marsh, but all too high, though I had only seen 3 duck. The evening flight again was on some flooded marshland a few miles away. I set a couple of decoys on a pool and awaited the flight. Only two duck came, mallard I thought in the darkness as they flashed past, but it was a hen gadwall that the dog retrieved after a brief chase. That was it for the flight, but at last my long run of blank flights had been stopped.

 

The next morning a mate and I planed to decoy some pinks on a small marsh. There was a problem though. The area where the pinks had been feeding was only a few hundred yards from the roost so we only expected one, or at best a couple of chances as our shots would put the geese up. Its not good practice to shoot so close to a roost , but we knew the local estate was going to do a duck flight on the roost site a couple of days later so the geese were going to be moved on anyway. There was a small flash on the meadow where we wanted to set up the decoys and to our surprise a very big bunch of mallard got off the water as we approached. We got the decoys setup in good time and it was great sitting in the side of a dyke and watching the dawn unfold while our ears were full of goose talk from the roost. A bunch of about 30 jumped and without any caution came straight into the decoys, giving easy chances. I killed one and set another planing away to crash into some reeds a hundred yards off. My mate also got a pink. At our shots the main bunch of pinks got up and came over, but they were higher, though still within shot, just. I could have had a couple of reasonable shots, but they were just wide of my mate so I left them to swing around into the decoys. When they did so they were too wide for me to have a shot and my mate missed. Still never mind there were still more geese, both pinks and greylags on the roost. 20 geese hedgehopped over the tops of the reeds on set wings, heading for the decoys. I went up to shoot when I realised they the two birds I picked were Egyptian geese. Swinging off them I searched for a pink in the skien, but by the time I realised the whole flock were Egyptians the moment for a shot was gone and they passed unscathed. A high bunch of pinks appeared coming in off the estuary. We both turned around to try and call them when a shout from my mate made look back. 40 pinks were just swinging away out of shot over the decoys. They had come in silently while we were trying to call the high birds. By now the sun was just brushing the skyline when following a chorus of calls the greylag were up. A hundred or more passed wide to our right heading for some distant feeding grounds, by there were two outriders that would pass 40 yards to my left. It was obvious they were flying fast, very fast so I gave one a huge lead and fired. Its staggered fell, but recovered just before hitting the ground flying very low across the reeds. By now it was obvious the flight had finished so we set out to look for this bird and the pink that had planed down earlier on. Meg my lab quickly found the pink , but we could find no sign of the greylag. Still after my drought of birds this winter I was more than happy with my brace of pinks.

 

We decided to return to the flash at dusk in the hopes that the big bunch of mallard we had flushed this morning might return. As the sun set the pinks started to return to our surprise. Obviously our shooting this morning had not disturbed them badly. A number came right over us , but all just out of range. A few early mallard appeared and my mate quickly had a couple in the bag. But in nothing like the number we had flushed this morning. But there were plenty of other duck on the move. Though they came late so late that we could only just make out their dark shadows against the dark side of the sky duck poured into the flash. The flight ended up with 2 mallard 4 gadwall and 8 wigeon in the bag and despite the poor conditions for once both of us shot quite well , 21 shots for 14 duck shot in near pitch black was good for my standards and not a duck lost.

 

[Richie10]

Sounds like a red letter day compared to my recent visits out.

 

Well done.

[kent]

its been a bad season for me, too much flooding inland and no frost to speak of

[anser2]

I have been up on the N Norfolk Coast this morning doing a wildfowl count and there has been a big increase in the number of wigeon. Perhaps the cold weather in eastern Europe is at last sending some duck our way.

[Penelope]

According to the weekly weather on Countryfile, cold air is pushing in to the near continent from the east towards the end of the week, and possibly the UK for the weekend.

 

I have been up on the N Norfolk Coast this morning doing a wildfowl count and there has been a big increase in the number of wigeon. Perhaps the cold weather in eastern Europe is at last sending some duck our way.