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bird id waterfowl


Guest Ralphie19
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A bit confused sorry which one ? or both .Some species are protected by law so a public forum may not be the place to post that sort of question is there nobody in the club who could mentor the new member ? should they be killing birds without knowing what they are shooting at ?

Honest mistakes are all to easy to make even after years wildfowling but to be honest those two they really should be able to id.

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Where as I agree you should know what they were before you shot them you are in luck they are legal widgeon.

In the ideal world that is correct , but the op was a new member and most clubs now have some form of tests and have to go out with a experience member and the only way to identify legal quarry is to spend a lot of time on the fowling grounds .

 

Anyone , or should I say most people can identify duck / geese during morning flight with the improving light , but the evening flight is a different kettle of fish , I prefer evening flight and without trying to sound big headed , I have spent many 100s of nights in the dark and often shooting widgeon under the moon and with the town lights silhouetting the duck when it is pitch dark , and for most of the time I get it right in identifying what I am firing at , you can tell the widgeon by the noise they make and when they are excited you can even tell by how they fly , Mallard are fairly easy as with Teal , Pintail are more streamlined and nowadays don't often end up in the bag .

 

Now it seems a great deal of fowlers are short of time and don't get that many chances when they do go , so can you blame them when it getting dark a duck or goose appear out of the gloom and in a split second they shoot first and ask questions after , apart from a Shelduck he would have to be unlucky to shoot a protected species of duck , with geese it is slightly different , even if you are a hardened fowler , could you tell a Bean Goose from a Pink in bad light ? , and one night a couple of years ago , I was after geese and on this night they were everywhere , going back to there roost against gale force winds , I already had a couple and my limit then was four , when it was nearly dark a skein was crossing the marsh on the other side of the dyke , on they came till the nearest one was well in shot , having dropped that one the others banked and I got another , my old dog then went over the dyke and brought the first one back which was a Pink and done the same again with the second one , only this time , what I thought was a Pink turned out to be a Whitefront .

 

So lets not be to hard on the op , we all have to start somewhere , my only bit of small advice is to ask questions without posting a photo .

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Basing your wildfowling legality on luck is utterly unacceptable. As has been suggested, don't shoot what you've no idea what it is .. Leave the gun in the cabinet and go buy a British Bird species book or get on the BASC site. Being new to the sport is no excuse whatsoever.

Edited by hoggysreels
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I live for fowling , foreshore and Ouse washes and I haven't met any Fowler that has not made a mistake and shot a wrong species.That said he should be able to identify wigeon when they are in his hand.

You've hit the nail on its head. It's one thing failing to identify quarry species in the half light of dawn or dusk, it's another thing not knowing what you have shot when it is in your hands.

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