Never a blank day- A grand end to a poor season.

[anser2]

Well so far my wildfowling season has been pretty poor to say the least. In my parts of North and East Norfolk there just have not been the birds about. But a change in the weather over Eastern Europe altered all that. Just before the start of a weeks fowling holiday with a mate a glance at the weather forecast showed very cold temperatures in Germany and Denmark with snow and ice freezing up quite big rivers. Here in East Norfolk conditions were perfect with plenty of splashes across the grazing marshes, cold, but not enough frost to freeze up the flooded marsh. We had intended to have one day on the coast but a flight on the previous week saw no sign of the fowl arriving there ,so all our week was to spent inland , mainly on club ground , but with a couple of nights on our own marshes..

 

Monday morning we flighted the reedbeds along a large river but it was very quiet with few birds about. The evening was cold and clear and we flighted a flooded sedge meadow. I was very worried about one duck I shot. Two dark dots had appeared in the dark side of the sky. I had a single shot and one dropped with a very light splash. I was worried it had been a wader and was very relieved when my dog delivered a duck wigeon into my hand. The duck were late but we managed 2 drake mallard and a pair of wigeon , despite the birds not flighting until it was very dark.

 

Tuseday. A few miles away we had seen 100 pinks on my club marsh so we decided to try a mornings decoying , but the only geese we saw were very distant. But the high point of the morning was the amount of wigeon droppings we found around a flash. It had to be the spot to do the evening flight. In contrast to last night it was very cloudy and threatened rain. We were lucky the rain held off until the end of flight , but again the birds flighted late, very late when they were hardly visible. Wigeon poured in and though our shooting was pretty poor we ended with 5 wigeon and a shoveller for 30 shots. On the way home the heavens opened and we got soaked struggling back across the marsh. We could not have got any wetter if someone had hosed us down.

 

Wednesday. We had intended to flight close to a Broad well up the river the next morning , but my mate was ill during the night and when I was ready to leave I discovered my car was blocked in my his 4x4. So we had to give the morning flight a miss. In reality it was good to have a morning off to recharge our batteries with a lay in. Tonight we had decided to flight some more flashes , but this time on our shoot a few miles down the road. The evening was wet with heavy cloud and again the duck were late, so late that we could not see many just hearing the splash as they dropped onto the water. Again my shooting was not that good , but we ended with a drake gadwall, 2 mallard and 5 wigeon. For the second night running we got soaked.

 

There had been a rumour a few geese were flighting over some ground my club shoots over near the estuary so we decided to give them a go. Rain again greeted us and the dawn was very slow coming. Only one small skein came our way. They skirted my mate wide and headed my way. I little high perhaps , but still within range for big steel shells. The first pink foot crumpled nicely but I missed my footing for the second shot and missed. We saw a few more pinks and greylags , but none came near. The evening flight was less productive. We returned to the marsh we had shot on Monday morning where there had been plenty of wigeon and mallard feathers around some flashes, but we never saw a duck.

 

Friday morning dawned still and clear. We had hopes about catching some greylags out as they flighted from a reedbed pool up river. We were far enough away from the roost to take a shot or two at duck without disturbing the geese. One high pair of mallard came over very high and a single shot brought down a drake mallard , but he gave the dog a very long retrieve. My mate also got a mallard and then the geese started to flight. But the first birds were not the greys we expected , but pink feet. Twice flocks almost gave me a shot but turned 60 yards out to land on a meadow behind me. Finally some greys and Canada’s came , but all passed well to the north of us. But there was no disappointment , it had been a magic dawn , with the sights and sounds of geese echoing across the marsh and we had a duck each in the bag. I walked across to my mate for a chat when a late flock of greylag lifted off the pool. They gave us a perfect chance as the came over 25 yards up. My mate missed and so did I with our first 4 shots . I swung in desperation at a departing bird and he steeply glided out of the flock hitting the marsh a few hundred yards off. My dog was in pursuit before he hit the ground and arrived at the spot within seconds , but despite a through search with 2 dogs we could find so sign of it. The presence of several pheasants flushed by the dogs and a hare did not help the dogs picking up the scent , but I hate losing birds. Friday night saw us return to the same marsh to flight the duck on a nice little pool on the sedges. First we had another look for the lost goose , but there was no sign. The rain returned just at flight time and with the heavy cloud and very late flighting birds we had trouble seeing the duck at flight , but between us we still managed a mallard , teal and 4 wigeon.

 

And so ended our weeks fowling , it was the final night of the season , most flights had been windy and very wet and the ducks difficult targets as they were not flighting until it was very dark , but it had been a hell of a week and never a blank day.

 

I had one more days shooting on Saturday. I had been invited for a days driven pheasant shooting on a Norfolk estate , but at least this time I could see what I was shooting at.

Edited February 2, 2014 by anser2

[aister]

Excellent, well done anser, as you say a grand end.

Edited February 2, 2014 by aister

[IEH]

Nice one Robert. Effort duly rewarded, well done!

[marsh man]

well done Anser 2 I also shoot roughly the same area as you, also I have a large block of marshes on the south side of Breydon with having a lot of time on my hands and only living five minutes from the marsh I am out a lot mainly evenings I never shot a duck till October as I have gone off at shooting early season duck but that's my choice and I have nothing against it I have certainly shot plenty of them in my time .I was lucky to have two or three marshes that had water on when others were mainly dry ,there were a lot of duck using them as the water was fresh and a nice lot of worms and odds and **** in the water as cattle were still on them I had a lot of flights of 4 or 5 also had a lot of blanks and all but we all get them ,the more you go the more chances you are likely to get, its all to do with the weather and tides the rougher the better ,it started to get quiet from just before Christmas with the last good flight on the night of the tidal surge when there were a lot of duck about due to Breydon being so rough and they were comeing on the marsh for shelter ,all the time there were more and more splashes getting about and the shooting dyed down a lot still getting the odd one but no more 4 or 5 flights .I have also been wet but the gear nowadays is a lot better than the old wax coats so at least we can move our arms more when wet The duck were mainly Wigeon plus a few Teal and Mallard I got a Mallard on the last night and very wet a wild ole night ,that and a brace of Pheasants from the beaters day yesterday are hanging in my shed and they have pulled the curtains down on another season Good luck to you people who shoot the extra 20 days ive had enough now