COOTS ??

[Grandalf]

Gandalf i am surprised your dogs do not like moorhens , all mine loved them and at times it is a problem when sending the dog into a reed bed for a fallen duck to keep the dogs looking for the duck and leave the morhens alone. When we having a day looking for marsh pheasants, the dogs usually add a couple of moorhens of there own.

 

When i was about 12 I had a strange right and left. We were hunting up the dykes for a moorhen of two when a weather balloon came floating over 60 yards up. A moorhen burst out under my feet and i shot it and swung up and downed the weather ballon with the choke barrel.

The dogs love chasing waterhens - But don't like picking them up - Don't know why, smell or texture I presume.

There was a time when you could get a very small reward for returning weather balloons to the met office - Don't suppose you claimed?

Difficult feat with today's steel shot too.

[rich1985]

Now that brings back memory's! Coot shooting at sennowe park was one of the best! Waterhens or scratchy birds are getting few and far between in these parts! When I was young every pit had 6 or 7 in now your lucky to see 1. Probably the fact we used to eat all there eggs when we was little, spoon on a long stick.

[marsh man]

I used to have a copy of "At Dusk and Dawn' by Colin Maclean? , but I lent it to a friend 15 years ago and never saw the book again. I was in regular contact with his son Comander Maclean who still ran one of his fathers duck shoots and at the end of each season used to return to me a bag full of duck rings from birds I used to ring further up the valley on a gravel pit. Colin Maclean used shoot amazing numbers of duck by todays standards and would hardly think about getting out of bed for flight unless they were going to shoot 100. His best bag on Ranworth\Cockshoot Broads between I think 4 guns including the King was about 460 , mainly teal.

 

It may have been a different era of duck shooting , but the book is well worth a read.

Just been reading about that flight or one very similar at Woodbaswick , Cockshoot and Ranworth Broad on the 4th January 1938 when the bag was 500 head which at the time was a record for a flight, and with them being wild duck it still might stand to this day .

 

They had to be back at Woodbastick at mid day , so they packed up at 11 o clock to allow enough time to pick up , and during that time duck were still pouring in to the broad and Harry Cator wrote ( if we could have shot throughout the day I am sure we could have shot over 800 )

 

Aubrey Buxton who wrote the book had 173 to his own gun , and after lunch to round the day off they done the coverts and shot 148 Pheasants and 7 various head ........Finishing the day on 655 head , and like Robert said ( a different era in duck shooting ). The bag consisted of.....

 

222 Mallard

41 Wigeon

17 Shoveler

214 Teal

1 Tufted duck

4 Pochard

1 Various

[rich1985]

Now that's a bag of duck!

[Penelope]

A favourite titbit for both mink and otter, of which there are plenty about now.

 

Now that brings back memory's! Coot shooting at sennowe park was one of the best! Waterhens or scratchy birds are getting few and far between in these parts! When I was young every pit had 6 or 7 in now your lucky to see 1. Probably the fact we used to eat all there eggs when we was little, spoon on a long stick.

[Penelope]

I see you have read it then, .

 

 

Just been reading about that flight or one very similar at Woodbaswick , Cockshoot and Ranworth Broad on the 4th January 1938 when the bag was 500 head which at the time was a record for a flight, and with them being wild duck it still might stand to this day .

 

They had to be back at Woodbastick at mid day , so they packed up at 11 o clock to allow enough time to pick up , and during that time duck were still pouring in to the broad and Harry Cator wrote ( if we could have shot throughout the day I am sure we could have shot over 800 )

 

Aubrey Buxton who wrote the book had 173 to his own gun , and after lunch to round the day off they done the coverts and shot 148 Pheasants and 7 various head ........Finishing the day on 655 head , and like Robert said ( a different era in duck shooting ). The bag consisted of.....

 

222 Mallard

41 Wigeon

17 Shoveler

214 Teal

1 Tufted duck

4 Pochard

1 Various

[marsh man]

I see you have read it then, .

 

 

Morning Paul ........No I didn't have the one you spoke of , the one I have been reading was ( The King In His Country ) but the accounts of the bags would have been the same as Colin Mc Lean was in a lot of the shooting parties . One interesting entry was the last time the king shot on the Broads the year before he died , it was 27th January 1951 and the weather was calm and mild in fact the chaps in the punts had to take there coats off because it was warm work in the very mild weather ( a bit like today ) even so the bag was 979 head and that was with 961 Coots.

 

A little footnote on the bottom read.

 

( A lovely sunny day. Broad very calm with not a ripple on it. The Coot did not fly to high , but they came over well ) .

 

 

All the best for Christmas Paul and good luck with your new job , and make sure you find enough time to keep us informed on your days out as we all eagerly look forward to reading about them .

[Penelope]

Ah, yes, the give away should have been Aubrey Buxton.

 

A little film by him.

 

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/203779

 

Morning Paul ........No I didn't have the one you spoke of , the one I have been reading was ( The King In His Country ) but the accounts of the bags would have been the same as Colin Mc Lean was in a lot of the shooting parties . One interesting entry was the last time the king shot on the Broads the year before he died , it was 27th January 1951 and the weather was calm and mild in fact the chaps in the punts had to take there coats off because it was warm work in the very mild weather ( a bit like today ) even so the bag was 979 head and that was with 961 Coots.

 

A little footnote on the bottom read.

 

( A lovely sunny day. Broad very calm with not a ripple on it. The Coot did not fly to high , but they came over well ) .

 

 

All the best for Christmas Paul and good luck with your new job , and make sure you find enough time to keep us informed on your days out as we all eagerly look forward to reading about them .

[anser2]

Its getting a small world I undertake the wildfowl counts and advise on conservation matters on the late Aubery Buxtons small estate on the North coast now managed by is son.

[JDog]

Thanks for posting that Buxton clip.

 

He didn't have far to go to get onto the marsh did he?

Edited December 24, 2014 by JDog

[fenboy]

Thanks for posting that Buxton clip.

 

He didn't have far to go to get onto the marsh did he?

You may have to walk a little further than that if you take up Munchers offer JDog .

What a fabulous location for a house though , perhaps not so great in a storm though !

[Penelope]

I visited Blakeney at the beginning of December; last years storm surge would have wetted his front door given the level the sea reached.

 

You may have to walk a little further than that if you take up Munchers offer JDog .

What a fabulous location for a house though , perhaps not so great in a storm though !

[hoggysreels]

Enjoyed watching that video... its a place l'd like to visit one day ..

[rjimmer]

Remember that Coot cannot be shot in February as other wildfowl can below high water mark.

[marsh man]

Remember that Coot cannot be shot in February as other wildfowl can below high water mark.

You are right " rjimmer " they can only be shot till the end of January , but with them being mainly a inland water bird I don't think the coastal boys would come across to many below the high water mark , and if they did , I don't think they would be worth the powder and shot if there been living and eating on the saltings, as the feathers would taste better than the meat .......... Merry Christmas " rjimmer "

[rjimmer]

Our Coot drives take place on tidal salt water.