At Last !

[anser2]

I had just started to get a little jittery about getting my first goose of the season with only a few weeks to go before it closes. I have left it a bit late before once or twice in the past. I remember one year when it was just after sunrise on February 20^th before I shot my first goose of the season. Now that’s leaving it a bit late.

 

It was pretty wild Friday night in the Broads with a biting north wind sweeping across the marshes straight from Siberia and snow flurries. A mate and I were supposed to take a winner from our club draw for a goose flight in the morning , but the snow and promised bad weather meant that we had to cancel as he had a 250 mile round trip to get back home. We thought we would take a look at what was about at evening flight and do an evening flight for duck. The marsh is a big one and we knew the main flocks were feeding 1\2 mile away so our shooting would not disturb them.

 

We had a nice little flash of perhaps a 1\4 of an acre of flooded grass with a second flash 200 yards off. Both looked ideal for wigeon , but I was a little concerned that there were no feathers or droppings , but too late now to change our position so one of my friends joined me on the main flash wile B went off to the smaller one.

 

So slowly the darkness gathered pace as the freezing wind tighten its grip finding any crack into our clothes and chilling us to the marrow. Far out across the marsh bunch after bunch of pinks lifted and headed off to their roost, faint dark masses against the glowering clouds. We waited and waited , but no duck came out of the gloom , just 100s of pinks faintly seen in the distance and a late home going harrier were all the bird life we saw as one by one the stars started to come out.

 

Then a huge bird appeared out of the gloom. On and on he came , heading for our flash. At first I thought is was a cormorant , but as it came closer hugging the turf I realised it was a goose. 30 yards off and looking such a simple shot I gave it a bit of lead and fired . Unbelievably on it came . My second shot was straight at it , but had the same result as the first as did the third as it flared. As it towered over my mate he missed it both barrels too. Putting on height it sped off down wind towards B . A moment later came a single shot and seconds after a distinct bump as it hit the ground . One unlucky greylag . More geese , pinks this time. It was so dark I could not make them out until they were 100 yards off, about 30 of them , perhaps 10 yards up and coming in for our flash. Twice they almost landed in front of us , but after a shrill whistle they lifted again and o’ so slowly inched their way towards us against the gale. They seemed almost stationary when I had my first shot. I could not believe I missed , but the second struck home as they flared up. Then my mate took out one for his double shot. Hardly had I reloaded than 10 pinks came right over my mate , but he missed as I did when I turned away and a scattering of half a dozen groups came across our flash. I had one shot but their speed beat me. Finally the simplest chance of the evening. A trio of pinks drifted over my mate 70 yards up. Again they were so slow coming to me against the wind until they were directly overhead, but still too high. Then so slowly they hung over my head and without beating a wing started to drop. They were over me for 15 seconds as they lost height and I judged them to be within range. I hit a bird twice before the wind whirled it away and despite a long search we never found it. Finally three more geese came into our flash. Again seeming such simple shot skimming the water, but only one bird came down for my three shots. My mate had one more pink and out across the marsh and B across the marsh brought off a right and left , though how the hell he saw them in the gloom I will never know. Six pinks and a greylag made for a memorable flight , but 90 % of the geese using the marsh never knew we were there and the next morning saw several thousand pinks back feeding on the grass and hopefully they will still be there in a couple of days when the draw winner has another chance for a flight. At last my goose drought this season had stopped and I had a pink or two in the bag. As for the duck only one was seen between the three of us.

Edited January 16, 2017 by anser2

[JDog]

A good story.

[Highlandladdie]

Good stuff! 👌

[m greeny]

Fantastic flight and birds in the bag are an added bonus.

[Penelope]

A thrilling evening Robert.

[marsh man]

Glad you managed to get a goose before the seasons curtains are drawn , now you have got the first one in the bag I am sure there will be a few more that end up in the same place. Good report as normal .

[anser2]

As a postscript to the account of the flight last weekend , we took out the draw winner who had a cracking morning, lots of geese about and he managed his first right and left at geese and later a third bird. The weather was cold and clear making a crisp magical morning. I only shot one pink , but the chance was there to shoot a lot more for both me and my guest, but it was just one of those mornings that makes wildfowling a joy.

Edited January 18, 2017 by anser2