A funny old week

[anser2]

Just had a weeks fowling both inland and on the foreshore with mixed results. Monday evening saw my mate and I doing a recon to see what was about on our inland soot.  I nearly did not take a gun but as my mate said you can be sure the birds will pour over you if you do not take one. The shoot is a very large expanse of grazing marsh some 4 miles from a major pink foot roost. We stood on the far boundary 1\2 a mile away from the feeding area and hardly had we split up when the distant sound of geese drifted across the marsh. A bunch was up and heading our way. It was at least 25 seconds before they appeared , low and heading to my right , but well within range. My first shot hit one goose with No1s, as did the second , but nether dropped the goose . It was almost out of range when I swung like hell and fired a duck cartridge of no 3s and it pole axed the bird. I hardly had time to reload when the next wave of geese were on us and I missed them as clean as a whistle as I did with the third wave. My Franchi s\a is as light as a feather and though I shoot well with it in broad daylight I tend to poke at birds in poor light. Still my mate and I  had opened the account with a goose apiece.

 

Day two. Next day we were a few miles away up the river valley at dawn waiting for the pinks to flight from a small pool just off our boundary. There were plenty of birds , both pinks and greylags , but all passed well wide of us. That evening we flighted a large soak dyke for duck, but most of the teal came in so low you could not see them and I missed the only mallard that came my way. So day two was a blank.

 

Day three. Was spent house hunting in the morning , without much luck and the afternoon spent feeding up the dykes on our shoot and managment work on the as yet dry flashes..

 

Day four. My mate and I have just joined a small group of fowlers who have the shooting on a famous bit of marsh and we tried morning flight. It was a quiet , dull dawn and there were only a few geese about , but my mate managed a huge Canada. I should have had one really, but I was watching a pair duck that looked as though they might offer a shot and did not see them until after they had passed over me. The evening flight was spent on another marsh , but the only duck that came over me were too high , though my mate got one.

 

Day five. I came home yesterday to north Norfolk and had not intended to shoot today, but I had to meet up with a friend at 8 am so thought I might as well do a flight as well. I left home under heavy cloudy skies that battened down the dawn , but the clouds cleared as I reached the coast to leave a fine clear dawn if a little cold dawn. The tide was just starting to fall and a stiff breeze sprung up from the west as I reached my hiding place and out in front I could hear pinks. Usually the geese roost well to the west of this part of the marsh , but with a west wind and a high tide at dawn they often move a few miles to the east to a high sand bank half a mile in front. of me. The first bunch caught me by surprise , barely 20 yards up and already in range before I saw them. This morning I was using my old AYA magnum s\s and it came up beautifully crumpling the first goose I picked. The whole skein jumped like teal on the wind and I was surprised to see a second bird tumble. Hardly had Meg returned with the last goose than a second bunch followed the same line and again I scored a right and left. The first bird was a lucky retrieve , crumpling into a feather ball it fell a few feet and them opening its wings glided a long way out across the marsh across two wide creeks. But my old dog had similar retrieved many times and it was no problem. Though she was a bit reluctant to cross the last creek. More birds came but my maxium is get the downed birds to hand first before taking any more. After I took it of her I realised why she was hesitant to swim the last creek. Her teeth were chattering loudly and she was cold. The old girl is getting on now and the cold dawn and several water retrieves had chilled her. One small bunch looked as though they were going to offer a shot as she was retrieving , but  I resolved that the next birds must be dropped on dry land. Another bunch quickly followed them. They were higher but well within range , though  missed the bird I shot at, well behind.  Finally the main bunch jumped , perhaps 3,000 in all and poured over me. Most were just too high , but there were a few lower birds. I picked one at the limits of range that slung its head back and crashed beside me. Five were plenty for one flight and I sat back to watch the last stragglers come swapping my goose shells for duck cartridges, though the only pair I saw were high and distant. After my poor shooting at the start of the week with the semi auto with one goose for 7 shots I was well pleased with the result of 5 birds for six shots with the old magnum side by side this morning.

This time of year is usually the best for duck as the migrants move along the coast and the inland numbers start to pick up. But this week I have only seen 20 teal , perhaps a dozen mallard and no wigeon over six flights. We badly need some rain to flood the marshes and some east winds.

Edited November 18, 2017 by anser2

[Walker570]

Great report. I wish I had 'funny old weeks' like that once in a lifetime

[marsh man]

Nice account of your weeks fowling , nice to know you are still keen and health wise able to do a full week this is a very strange sort of season , we have got a nice lot of Widgeon on the estuary and that's where they want to stay , up until last week I could walk round the marshes with my shoes on with them being so dry , then we had some heavy showers and at long last there are two small splashes , but like you say , we do need some serious rain to make it worthwhile going after duck .

The geese are here in good numbers although the best flighting places are well attended by members with the marshes this year staying dry and very little else for them to go after.

On the shoot where I go next Saturday two of the guns want to try a Pink so next week I will do my best to get a couple as lately I have been going down the marsh to walk them off the recently drilled sugar beet fields so now I will start taking a gun with me  , if they had wanted a couple of duck it might take me a bit longer because at the moment I don't know where the next two are coming from .

GOOD LUCK with your house hunting , if you are in the Bradwell area house hunting your more than welcome to pop round for a brew .

 

 

[flippermaj]

Hi Robert,

 

Good going with the old AYA, probably fits like a glove!

What is it choked at and what carts were you stuffing through it?

 

Really struggling to find any duck up here on the northern firths, went decoying yesterday and didn't see a single teal or widgeon, couple of seawall pigeon saved the blank though, love shooting flighting pigeons on the foreshore!

Cheers

Mark

[anser2]

2 hours ago, flippermaj said:

Hi Robert,

 

Good going with the old AYA, probably fits like a glove!

What is it choked at and what carts were you stuffing through it?

 

Really struggling to find any duck up here on the northern firths, went decoying yesterday and didn't see a single teal or widgeon, couple of seawall pigeon saved the blank though, love shooting flighting pigeons on the foreshore!

Cheers

Mark

I have had all the choke out of the AYA  magnum. Happy to use any UK or European steel cartridges  through it , but feel that the American Remmington or Winchesters might be a bit much. Most of the time I use Gamebore 3 inch mammoths or RC 34 and 36 gram loads though I did not expect much wind this morning so upped the firepower a little and was using the last of my 3 inch Hevi-shot.  I did have a bit of recoil problem with my fingers  catching a pin on the stock , but thats covered with tape now and no problem. There is little noticable recoil on my shoulder. I like the weight of the gun and when you swing it just keeps on going unlike the Franchi.

Edited November 18, 2017 by anser2

[anser2]

Thanks Marshman I will take you up on your offer when I am down your way again possibly in mid December. The house hunting is not going well. I was put in an offer that was accepted on one house  only to find a few days later that there was a covenent on the deeds forbiding keeping large dogs. You were allowed one cat or a small dog and as I have 2 labs I had to pull out of the sale. 

[6.5x55SE]

Good see/hear you are out and about Robert.

Well done mate on your 5 for 6 Pink's with the AYA i to of late have been giving mine a airing scoring a R&L at Pink's perhaps it's my upbringing old age or both but i find it so much more rewarding scoring a R&L with the AYA as apposed to a triple with a auto.

Well done again Robert hope to hear/see you have enjoyed more success through out the season 

[anser2]

Good to hear from you Boyd, we should meet some time for a chat. Health  wise I am not doing so bad , but its a case of taking each day as it comes. I can go weeks or even months with no problems and then wake up one morning short of breath and have trouble walking more than a few hundred yards. I was shooting a few weeks your way on the Ouse  Washes , but there were very few duck about. Never even saw a teal or wigeon. I have not posted much on here as I have just finished writing a book on wildfowling and surprise , you feature in it i one or two places. Tell you more about it sometime. All being well it should be published early spring , but there a few lose ends to tie up that seem to be taking ages to sort out.

 

[bishop]

Im finding that this yer,like last is   not too great on the shore.Im not complaining as im sure duck are about someplace but its been a struggle to see rafts of anything with wings floating about.Weather is simply too mundane.

[moongeese]

Duck numbers in this area continue to decline, on our lochs which are Ramsar sites, and never shot, the bird counts of wild duck are down every year. I have the records for this estate going back nearly forty years, and the drop in wild duck numbers is shocking.

Gone are the days when you could throw a bag of barley seconds into any pond or splash, and 10 days later you could fill a sack with ducks.                                                                                I release 300 mallard every year to compensate for the harvest we shoot , it does not make a big difference, but I feel better for it.

Pinkfoot geese this season in this area are well up, I have not had geese in these numbers for over 10 years, whether it is due to the increase in goose numbers  in the country or seasonal movement I am unsure yet, but everyone round here is saying the same. 

Good write up anser2

Edited November 19, 2017 by moongeese

[anser2]

In East Anglia duck numbers are well down this year due I think of a combination of several poor breeding seasons localy and the lack of east winds to encourage the duck to come across the North Sea, plus we have been so dry while in Germany\Poland there has seen extensive flooding. We  are also seeing a long term trend of fewer mallard \pintail\wigeon migrating here as the winters in Northern Europe become warmer. I have friends who tell me that they never saw mallard in mid winter in Sweden 50 years ago. Now their rivers rarely freeze up and are full of them right through the winter. 50 years ago these mallard would have come to the UK in winter.

Edited November 19, 2017 by anser2

[moongeese]

I put it down to poor breeding seasons, and the increase of otters.

[marsh man]

This morning we had a big tide on the estuary , with the weather being a bit cold but nice and clear it was an ideal way to spend a couple of hours having a walk with the dog and a pair of binoculars to see what duck were on there , the area known as the Lumps were virtually covered with water,  nowadays they are very rarely ( if ever ) shot and now with no disturbance the ducks seem to know they are safe to swim within gun shot distance from human beings.

Walking underneath the new bridge there were Widgeon swimming in the submerged pools within shooting distance , there were several Teal and I did see two pairs of Pintail and a few Mallard , the amount of duck must have added up to near four figures which might sound a lot , but we are now in the second half of the season and by now we would normally have a few 1000 with the peak around Christmas ,  then from Christmas onwards the numbers are governed by the weather conditions so we have got a reasonable amount of duck but with the currant dry and still conditions very few are finding there way into the wildfowlers bag .

1 hour ago, anser2 said:

In East Anglia duck numbers are well down this year due I think of a combination of several poor breeding seasons localy and the lack of east winds to encourage the duck to come across the North Sea, plus we have been so dry while in Germany\Poland there has seen extensive flooding. We  are also seeing a long term trend of fewer mallard \pintail\wigeon migrating here as the winters in Northern Europe become warmer. I have friends who tell me that they never saw mallard in mid winter in Sweden 50 years ago. Now their rivers rarely freeze up and are full of them right through the winter. 50 years ago these mallard would have come to the UK in winter.

 

[figgy]

 Very good read that anser thanks, I felt like I was there with you 

look forward to your next exploits. I’m working seven days a week at the moment so I’m missing getting out on the marsh. Reading this makes me want to get out more