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where have they gone?


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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.

Thank goodness we haven't got any so called guides down our way, and most of the marshland the geese are using are rented out to local wildfowling clubs who have bag limits and we have to be off some of the marshes at a certain time of the day, The roosting grounds belong to the R S P B who also own some of the surrounding marshes so there is no shooting on there.

 

As for bag limits I think in the two local clubs its four a day which for most people is more than enough , while I have got a couple hanging up its enough for me and I go out for a few duck which are proving harder to get at the moment than the Geese.

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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 .

This was 50+ birds between two. Have seen the same guide have bags of over a hundered some mornings which is plain stupid in my mind.

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This was 50+ birds between two. Have seen the same guide have bags of over a hundered some mornings which is plain stupid in my mind.

You dont happen to know who they were. I beleive that a couple of seasons ago in Orkney there was an issue with a certain goose guide company (based in central Scotland but travel up with there clients) who were over killing and possibly dumping because they could not transport the geese. I understood that they were not welcome in Orkney so maby they have moved location.

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Most of the posts lately are about the numbers of Geese , either having more , roughly the same or not as many , and we know most of us on here have had one or two ,......... and for those who haven't your turn will come

 

But what about duck , we are now in the second week of Dec and on paper should be getting in the prime part of the season , and what I have seen lately when I have been out on the marsh at night is to say the least , pretty poor and I am out most nights in whatever the weather has to offer.

 

There is no shortage of water , a fair amount of duck on the estuary and yet hardly any using the marsh , its not just where I go its all over as you hardly hear a shot at flight time and with just over six weeks of the inland season left if things are going to improve lets hope its sooner than later .

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Most of the posts lately are about the numbers of Geese , either having more , roughly the same or not as many , and we know most of us on here have had one or two ,......... and for those who haven't your turn will come

 

But what about duck , we are now in the second week of Dec and on paper should be getting in the prime part of the season , and what I have seen lately when I have been out on the marsh at night is to say the least , pretty poor and I am out most nights in whatever the weather has to offer.

 

There is no shortage of water , a fair amount of duck on the estuary and yet hardly any using the marsh , its not just where I go its all over as you hardly hear a shot at flight time and with just over six weeks of the inland season left if things are going to improve lets hope its sooner than later .

 

My whole season has been poor on duck, i have yet to bag one on the foreshore. I am sure there are duck about as at times i have seen some numbers of them, but never a good flight where i have been, let alone close enough to provide a shot.

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Duck over here -

 

last week , shooting by myself . tide flights and 2 evening flights.

 

I had 2 Blanks. 1 flt Bag 4 - 1 Weg 3 Teal. 1 Flt Bag 5 - 2 Weg 3 Teal . 1 Flt Dead calm and cold Bag 13 - 3 weg - 10 Teal , Inc a Triple and a Double.

 

And 1 Mallard on an Inland stroll .... ... Total for the Season so Far 98 Duck and no Big Boys , only Brent and Passing Canadas out of season here.

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My whole season has been poor on duck, i have yet to bag one on the foreshore. I am sure there are duck about as at times i have seen some numbers of them, but never a good flight where i have been, let alone close enough to provide a shot.

Mat I must agree with you that is poor , in fact very POOR , I will treat a fellow Norfolk boy to a flight with one of Lincolnshires top guides who goes under the name of " Fenboy " he told me he would take me out for 50p a flight and with Christmas just around the corner he might do a ( buy one get one free ) deal and we can both go for the price of one . :lol::good:

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Mat I must agree with you that is poor , in fact very POOR , I will treat a fellow Norfolk boy to a flight with one of Lincolnshires top guides who goes under the name of " Fenboy " he told me he would take me out for 50p a flight and with Christmas just around the corner he might do a ( buy one get one free ) deal and we can both go for the price of one . :lol::good:

Sorry the 50p was a senior citizens only price , as Mat is a youngster in full time employment he would have to pay the full £1 Xmas or not :lol:

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Thousands on Holkham Freshes during the weekend.

 

The GF and I had a weekend away at Wells and took a drive down to Holkham on Saturday and there were Pinks everywhere all over the grazing marshes, had some great shots (with the camera).

 

At night they could be heard flying over the town under the moon and on Sunday evening I took a little walk out whilst the GF was getting ready, to a field just down the way from the hotel that had hundreds pouring in under the moon into a harvested sugar beet field, snuck through the gateway got to within 40 yards of those on the ground and had numerous skeins over my head a killable height as they came in. Bloody fantastic!!

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I think more shots have been taken by cameras at the pinks, than have been taken by wildfowlers at Holkham recently. I'm not sure whether anyone/club shoots the Holkham marshes these days, possibly Wells wildfowlers.

Gone are the days when you could nip down to the marsh gate, have a good flight, and leave a few quid under the rock for the headkeeper.

 

It's big buisness for them with all the birdies coming from far and wide to see thousands of pinks.

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You dont happen to know who they were. I beleive that a couple of seasons ago in Orkney there was an issue with a certain goose guide company (based in central Scotland but travel up with there clients) who were over killing and possibly dumping because they could not transport the geese. I understood that they were not welcome in Orkney so maby they have moved location.

 

Based in St Andrews. Their operation has been severely curtailed in recent seasons due to a numerous intances of armed tresspass, killing protected species, overshooting, dumping, you name it. Their remaining permission is on the farms of the landowners they pay, elsewhere they aren't welcome anymore, and you can't wonder at it.

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I have always limited my bags of geese , mainly because of carrying them as I get older , but also because of club limits and a dislike of over kills ,BUT.

 

These days we have rapidly increasing goose populations with pink numbers going through the roof and feral greylags still in serious danger of being put on the pest list I feel it is no bad thing provided no geese are wasted if wildfowlers take a few more than they have in the past. This year in Norfolk we have more greylags than I have ever seen in the area before. A few days ago I had 3-400 come over me at flight and a few weeks ago on another marsh 20 miles away at least a thousand flighted out of a broad at dawn. I restricted myself to a brace mainly due to having a very long walk along a very rough track back to the car. But the Broads Authority wants to start heavy culling of greylags as they are claiming they are damaging the reed beds and opening the river banks up to erosion . If this comes about then greylag will return to being a uncomon feature in the Norfolk wildfowlers bag. So taking a few more will help to take the heat out of the situation.

Edited by anser2
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Nothing to do with speeding boats then? Oh, how silly of me, it can't be, the Broads Authority take navigation licence fees from boat owners and holiday companies.

 

I have always limited my bags of geese , mainly because of carrying them as I get older , but also because of club limits and a dislike of over kills ,BUT.

 

These days we have rapidly increasing goose populations with pink numbers going through the roof and feral greylags still in serious danger of being put on the pest list I feel it is no bad thing provided no geese are wasted if wildfowlers take a few more than they have in the past. This year in Norfolk we have more greylags than I have ever seen in the area before. A few days ago I had 3-400 come over me at flight and a few weeks ago on another marsh 20 miles away at least a thousand flighted out of a broad at dawn. I restricted myself to a brace mainly due to having a very long walk along a very rough track back to the car. But the Broads Authority wants to start heavy culling of greylags as they are claiming they are damaging the reed beds and opening the river banks up to erosion . If this comes about then greylag will return to being a uncomon feature in the Norfolk wildfowlers bag. So taking a few more will help to take the heat out of the situation.

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You are right Penelope the answer is to restrict the speed if the boats , but there is too much money invested in the holiday boat bussness. The only way we are going to keep the quality of our greylag shooting in the Broads in the long term is to keep their numbers in check!

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http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/g

g635/MathewTR/DSC_0014_zpszzf7hs2h.jpg

 

did you take that pic from the car park at work mat?

 

 

There was a good few skiens after that but i had to get back to doing some work!

 

 

Stood outside the tractor shed, was strapping down that kubota ready to go when i heard them. Said to the guy i was working with " Give me a minute, got to take some photos"

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