The Sky Gypsies Have Arrived

[marsh man]

Having spent the last afternoon pigeon shooting before we start game shooting next week I was entertained by watching 100s of Pinks dropping on an old barley stubble field that is now mostly grass , by the time they started to lift around 4pm they must have numbered into four figures.

 

The Geese were coming in off the sea and I was wondering weather they hear the geese that have already landed or weather they see them first before they can hear them , I am sure somebody will know , possibly our good friends Anser2 or 6.55x5SE who both have a lot of knowledge with working and studying geese .

[6.5x55SE]

Good to hear your Geese are back with you John.

I've noted over the years Pinks first returning to the area often head to a Field/Fields they feed on before they left in the Spring. I also believe they have some inbuilt sixth sense as for maybe 10+years I knew of 2 fields next to each other always had the first Pinks to arrive in September feed on one or the other

IMHO it's a Goose's eye sight that first attract's them as loads of times geese on the ground can or are mute yet a smudge in the sky that turns into a skien geese just lock on and go straight to single pairs or small party's.

Yes as we all know Geese due hear and are attracted to calling.

So for me eye sight and memory bank.

Hope to see your bagged a Pink soon

Edited October 10, 2015 by 6.5x55SE

[marsh man]

Thanks for the information 6.5x55SE , as I expected , sight before sound .

 

We had the first reports of there arrival the last week of September which was a few days late , but now they are building up daily , the beet factory is now open and sugar beet is being lifted every day so they haven't got to look far for something to eat .

 

Now there here in numbers I don't think it will be to long before the first one will be in the oven , it will certainly make a nice change from eating pigeons .

[6.5x55SE]

John as you have probably noted I love pursuing Geese under the Moon.

On many occasions Pink's have been flighting strongly into feed those flighting mostly being mute with just a odd Chunter and even with thousands on the ground feeding I've only heard the odd call.

Amazing birds and know matter how well you think you understand them they always seem to learn you more if you put the time in to observe and study them.

[anser2]

Marshman I saw some of them last night heading back towards their roost from the south at dusk . Not as many as you had , but a good 500though all very high. . The night before they had been feeding just off our shoot , but yesterday they were a lot further south up the river valley.

 

Had a great fun in the Broads even it we had a lot of bad luck and only one bird in the bag. Friday evening we flighted a mallard flight line saw about 40 bunches , with most very low but all passed just wide over our boundary . My mate had a couple of chances , but my Browning malfunctioned at the only mallard that was within range of me. Typical. The next morning we flighted greylag way up the Norwich River . Quite a few came off but I only had one chance and using one of my last Hevi shot no 5s in my game gun killed a nice long bird. My mate not to be out done got 3 long mallard with 2 shots. We were back towards the estuary for the evening flight , but apart from the pinks never saw a duck or greylag at flight and came home with clean barrels.

Edited October 11, 2015 by anser2

[JDog]

Pinks are flighting over my house virtually every day/night. I always hear them first. They are very high.

[marsh man]

Marshman I saw some of them last night heading back towards their roost from the south at dusk . Not as many as you had , but a good 500though all very high. . The night before they had been feeding just off our shoot , but yesterday they were a lot further south up the river valley.

 

Had a great fun in the Broads even it we had a lot of bad luck and only one bird in the bag. Friday evening we flighted a mallard flight line saw about 40 bunches , with most very low but all passed just wide over our boundary . My mate had a couple of chances , but my Browning malfunctioned at the only mallard that was within range of me. Typical. The next morning we flighted greylag way up the Norwich River . Quite a few came off but I only had one chance and using one of my last Hevi shot no 5s in my game gun killed a nice long bird. My mate not to be out done got 3 long mallard with 2 shots. We were back towards the estuary for the evening flight , but apart from the pinks never saw a duck or greylag at flight and came home with clean barrels.

I am not sure if the geese I saw made there way back to the reserve or weather they roost around the broad land area at this time of the year . I was in the Potter Heigham area after pigeons yesterday and going by previous years a lot of them seem to stay out that way day and night , as a lot of land round that way is connected with game shooting, so while there on stubble and beet tops they tend to be left alone and apart from the odd one shot they can come and go with little disturbance .

 

Glad you enjoyed your stay, and there is nothing worse than your gun playing up when your about to take a shot at the only duck to come your way , you ourt to know better than buying cheap ole Brownings ,

 

Pinks are flighting over my house virtually every day/night. I always hear them first. They are very high.

 

Wait till theres a good ole blow Mr JDog and you will be able to pop out on your lawn, have a couple of quick shots and you will leave a gap in there formation, I know your more than capable because I can remember the r + l you got at Canadas last year

 

 

 

 

 

[anser2]

It amazes me just where some pinks will roost. I few years ago I had a hundred come into a splash not much bigger than my living room at dusk.

[Penelope]

Roosting on Hickling or Horsey?

 

I am not sure if the geese I saw made there way back to the reserve or weather they roost around the broad land area at this time of the year . I was in the Potter Heigham area after pigeons yesterday and going by previous years a lot of them seem to stay out that way day and night , as a lot of land round that way is connected with game shooting, so while there on stubble and beet tops they tend to be left alone and apart from the odd one shot they can come and go with little disturbance .

 

Glad you enjoyed your stay, and there is nothing worse than your gun playing up when your about to take a shot at the only duck to come your way , you ourt to know better than buying cheap ole Brownings ,

 

 

Wait till theres a good ole blow Mr JDog and you will be able to pop out on your lawn, have a couple of quick shots and you will leave a gap in there formation, I know your more than capable because I can remember the r + l you got at Canadas last year

 

 

 

 

 

[marsh man]

When I got back from our first shoot yesterday I took the dogs up the river and I was just in time to see about a 1000 Pinks drop onto the estuary for the night , also what was a bit unusual for the time of year was 20 odd Brent Geese feeding on the edge of the tide .

 

This morning around 8 am the sky was full of geese , the skeins were continuous for well over a mile and when the first big lot were fading in the distance there were still geese coming as far as you could see from the same direction as the first skein , How many were there ? , I could only guess but it must have been several thousand .

 

If anything I would say the first ones that arrived this year were a few days late , now the amount I saw today could well be more than we would expect for mid October . already they are out numbering the Widgeon that are here , but time will tell .

[6.5x55SE]

When I got back from our first shoot yesterday I took the dogs up the river and I was just in time to see about a 1000 Pinks drop onto the estuary for the night , also what was a bit unusual for the time of year was 20 odd Brent Geese feeding on the edge of the tide .

 

This morning around 8 am the sky was full of geese , the skeins were continuous for well over a mile and when the first big lot were fading in the distance there were still geese coming as far as you could see from the same direction as the first skein , How many were there ? , I could only guess but it must have been several thousand .

 

If anything I would say the first ones that arrived this year were a few days late , now the amount I saw today could well be more than we would expect for mid October . already they are out numbering the Widgeon that are here , but time will tell .

They are certainly showing well all over now John. I would imagine back end of this coming Moon early November we will see another Big influx.

I saw 13 Whitefront's over the weekend not the earliest as some years ago I shot some 5th October.

Lets pray for Hard weather Holland-Germany and Belgium to push plenty of Whitefront's across but fingers crossed WE don't suffer a Cold Weather shooting ban.

Are you able to shoot the Estuary where your Pink's are !!!!! Could be having some fun with this coming Moon .

Edited October 18, 2015 by 6.5x55SE

[magman]

Sky Gypsies ?

 

Thought they were seagulls

[marsh man]

They are certainly showing well all over now John. I would imagine back end of this coming Moon early November we will see another Big influx.

I saw 13 Whitefront's over the weekend not the earliest as some years ago I shot some 5th October.

Lets pray for Hard weather Holland-Germany and Belgium to push plenty of Whitefront's across but fingers crossed WE don't suffer a Cold Weather shooting ban.

Are you able to shoot the Estuary where your Pink's are !!!!! Could be having some fun with this coming Moon .

Hi 6.5x55SE...........As far as shooting go on the estuary it is now all but finished , maybe its one of the reasons there are more duck and geese on there than at any time since we started to go on there from the early 60s , during Dec and Jan when there are neap tides and the geese decide to spend the night on there they very rarely leave till it break light and when you look across the river first thing in the morning the numbers of geese looks like a black island across the mud flats .

 

At one time we couldn't get on with the R SP B but if it wasn't for the reserve we wouldn't have the geese that come down our way nowadays , and I would say we have gained a lot more than we have lost since they managed the block of marshes where the reserve is now , some of our marshes are very close to the reserve but far enough away so the shooting don't disturb them while the geese are resting and I can honestly say that one or two of my best ever flights have been on there when I haven't fired a shot , just lent against a gate and watched 100s if not 1000s of geese come over me 30 or 40yds above the range of my gun .

 

If its in your blood just being there is enough and if you do come home with one or two in the bag then its the icing on the cake.

[6.5x55SE]

Thanks for replying John. I was fairly sure your Estuary was now Non Shooting. Must admit I am all for non shooting areas But I do like them when you can shoot either side and behind if that makes sense.

Amazing though how quickly the Pinks especially cotton on to where there safe.

A place I shot 30yrs + ago is now a reserve over the years I watched the Pinks on a Sunday morning brush the Mud with there wing tips yet when I shot there you needed proper Fowling Weather to get the Geese

[anser2]

I can only echo Marshman,s words about the benefits of non shooting reserves. When I was growing up in the Broads it was very rare to see a skein of pinks and you had to travel 50 miles to see them on the Wash. Now they are all over the Broads in their thousands. We even have several thousand roosting on our shoot at times.

 

Again when I was a teenager unless you had the shooting around the estuary it was rare to get a shot at wigeon without very hard weather. In recent years I have shot wigeon up and down all the Broadland rivers and even managed to get a few pintail, a duck we never saw away from the estuary. Its true some complain that all the duck spend the day on the reserves , but without the reserves the duck just would not be in the area and the reserves cannot feed the huge numbers the area holds , they have to come out sometime to feed on shot ground.

 

A new factor in recent years has been the availibity of money from NE to dig wader scrapes which in turn flood well before the main grassland floods and provide ideal duck flighting flashes once they have matured after a couple of years. We have several on our shoot and they provide great shooting.

[marsh man]

We look back sometimes with tinted glasses and I often hear new members say , I would love to go back to the good ole days , so would I but when were they as far as wildfowling go ? .

 

I used to follow and look forward to Robin Harrisons weekly report in the local paper about bird life and things in general connected to Breydon and the Broad land area , and one winter after prolonged hard weather he put a piece in the paper about wildfowl numbers on the estuary . I remember he stated there were over 7000 Widgeon on there plus a lot of diving duck and all the other species of fowl , and in his words ( the most ducks he had ever seen on there ) although I am not sure if he mentioned geese because at the time the marshes were lightly shot and the reserve wasn't around so what geese were about then were mainly on the marshes and not on the estuary .

 

Now 40 odd years later that amount of duck would be considered the norm, in fact last years count was double that with roughly the same amount of Geese to go on top of the duck count.

 

 

So as far as wildfowling goes I would say it is as good if not better than any time in the past . the two clubs have got the shooting on some excellent marshes which we never had and like anser2 stated the geese have to go and feed at some time , so if your are prepared to put the time in and have some knowledge of wildfowling you will be rewarded , but like I say , you still have to put the time in and know what you are doing .

[anser2]

Marshman you might have a few less pinks now. I was pigeon shooting this morning east of Fakenham and between 10.00 and midday a stream of hundreds of pinks came over high from Norwich direction headding for Wells. While they are always very high My pigeon shoot farms seem to be on the flightline for pinks heading to and from the Broads.

[fenboy]

 

 

We look back sometimes with tinted glasses and I often hear new members say , I would love to go back to the good ole days , so would I but when were they as far as wildfowling go ? .

 

I used to follow and look forward to Robin Harrisons weekly report in the local paper about bird life and things in general connected to Breydon and the Broad land area , and one winter after prolonged hard weather he put a piece in the paper about wildfowl numbers on the estuary . I remember he stated there were over 7000 Widgeon on there plus a lot of diving duck and all the other species of fowl , and in his words ( the most ducks he had ever seen on there ) although I am not sure if he mentioned geese because at the time the marshes were lightly shot and the reserve wasn't around so what geese were about then were mainly on the marshes and not on the estuary .

 

Now 40 odd years later that amount of duck would be considered the norm, in fact last years count was double that with roughly the same amount of Geese to go on top of the duck count.

 

 

So as far as wildfowling goes I would say it is as good if not better than any time in the past . the two clubs have got the shooting on some excellent marshes which we never had and like anser2 stated the geese have to go and feed at some time , so if your are prepared to put the time in and have some knowledge of wildfowling you will be rewarded , but like I say , you still have to put the time in and know what you are doing .

Do you think the birth of WAGBI and the leasing of shooting to clubs have helped with the increasing numbers of fowl MM , the old fowlers would shoot and sell anything they could where as today the wash has a number reserves with many clubs having bag limits.

[scolopax]

WAGBI was certainly responsible for the large numbers of Greylags we now enjoy south of the border.

 

On my local marshes there have been huge changes in the last 30 years, principally due to habitat change, duck numbers are a fraction of what they once were, but we have many many more geese, both resident and migratory.

[anser2]

A more enlightened attitude from wildfowlers may well have helped wildfowl numbers and in the case of pink feet bag limits have helped , but I am sure the main factor is the policy from conservation agencies of every estuary should have a protected zone . A policy that many clubs have now started to adopt. To give an example , 40 years ago I pressured my club to provide a safe roost for the few hundred pinks that had returned after 40 year absence. Within the roost grew to 10,000 pinks within a few years and two decades later peaked at 90,000. True we have now lost many of the pinks to roost due to changes in crops and a shift in the sands encouraging the geese to move down the coast , plus the flooding of inland water meadows providing an alternative inland roost. But if that roost had not been protected and the club be prepared to give up part of their shooting ground I am sure he pinks would have never returned in any numbers.

 

From a wildfowlers point of view is that reserves provide honey pots close to it and this may be to the detriment of more marginal shooting areas. You only have to look at an area I shoot in the Broads. The northern and central rivers have a number of reserves and when the birds leak out onto shooting areas the fowling is very good. But the south river has no reserves and the shooting there though good at times is noway as good as the other areas. But the important thing is the birds are in the area and it only needs a change in the weather ( flooding or hard frost ) and the birds will move into the less good areas. My shoot is on one of the less good areas and in a dry winter we are lucky to bag a dozen duck or any geese off it. But in a wet year the bags can be very good of both duck and geese. We shoot can now species that were uncommon or non existent in the area 40 years ago thanks to the reserves holding stocks in the area.

 

When areas are protected there will be wildfowling losers and winners , but the important thing is that our wildfowl stocks are protected for without healthy wildfowl populations our sport is doomed.