Where are they

[6.5x55SE]

For obvious reasons i won't give exact locations. As with previous seasons early September saw the Pink's arrive disappear which is normal behaviour in Lincolnshire Norfolk Suffolk but as yet the normal big numbers you would expect at these locations are missing. Yes most have a few Pink's regular now but lacking in numbers only this morning a Fowler phoned me saying a place well known in Norfolk which at this time of the year should have 30 thousands upwards of Pink's has only 2-2.5 thousand. Are they still in serious numbers North England and Scotland yes we have a Moon again soon but if they do turn up I'd estimate they would be 3- 4 week's late. I see/ hear Bean Geese are already been seen recorded 3 weeks ago which is early also it would seem Whitefront are gaining momentum 🤞🙏 Look forward to some thoughts from others who chase the Pink's. 

[jall25]

Seen very few passing over Derbyshire this year - usually the first shoot or two we see plenty and hear them at night too but very few - other than a skein or two the last week in September 

Is it because its so mild and is the wind in the wrong direction ?

[6.5x55SE]

21 minutes ago, jall25 said:

Seen very few passing over Derbyshire this year - usually the first shoot or two we see plenty and hear them at night too but very few - other than a skein or two the last week in September 

Is it because its so mild and is the wind in the wrong direction ?

Thanks for your reply 👍 i honestly don't know as it's been mild for several years now but they have still turned up as yet I have to say i have never seen or heard so few in probably 30 year's 😞

[jall25]

Yes thats odd 

The lads are going to Caithness next week - im not i didnt want to see or chase them if they have the flu - if they have the lads will go fishing - so i wonder what they will see 

I do wonder about the wind 

[marsh man]

Our local population of Greylags seem to have done well this year with very few reports of any been found with the dreaded virus , unlike the Swans in the Broads .

The Pinks arrived more or less bang on time , number wise ? , maybe not as many as in previous years , one reason could have been the weather and another could have been the late start to the sugar beet campaign which didn't start till late September / early October .

We are now in late October and for the last few mornings the geese have been flying over my house in very good numbers and the amount I saw Saturday morning would have far exceeded 2 / 2 .5 thousand , what was unusual was they were very high , far to high if they they had spent the night on the reserve which is only a couple of miles as the Crow fly , the next unusual bit was they were heading South and as I am only a mile or so from North Suffolk a lot of them would had crossed the border , although a lot do that a bit later in the season , this could well be they are left alone a lot more in the Waveney Valley and on the marshland once the cattle had been taking off .

From what I have seen I wouldn't be over concerned , having said that in a few weeks time I could well be eating my words instead of a nice plump Pink Foot 

[shakin stevens]

They isn’t huge numbers of geese in the far North, past years you will see them all day long moving around .
doesn’t mean they aren’t here because they are not flying over the house ! 
but driving down to Inverness  for work the numbers look low compared to the last years, next moon will see a lot off up here, then you will be left with geese that will see the season out, they do fluctuate depending on tide and weather , you won’t see no more mind till February.

caithness  Feral greylag wont move south unless the weather gets bad, they tend to leave the lochs and head for the firths if it drops cold .

[Ttfjlc]

Parked up near the sea wall right now and it’s 14°C 😐

[Charlie Anderson]

I think in the us they refer to "short stopping" ie geese / ducks not migrating  as far south due to climate changes. As I'm from lundun that's me stuffed then.

I'm sure they'll be along soon.

 

[greenshank1]

It’s so mild , we haven’t had a single frost yet . 
There’s hardly a woodcock in either .

Bird flu was seen in Barnacle geese in Islay last week so it’s not looking good. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, greenshank1 said:

It’s so mild , we haven’t had a single frost yet . 
There’s hardly a woodcock in either .

Bird flu was seen in Barnacle geese in Islay last week so it’s not looking good. 

We have got a lot of bird flu on the poultry farms with new cases cropping up every day and yet up to now we seem to have got away with large numbers of wild fowl dying off , several Swans have been found dead on the Broads and we had some dead Pheasants confirmed they had the virus , so at the moment it is in the balance .

As for it being mild , this morning I walked all the way along the river wall and it was like a perfect day in early Summer , also what was noticeable in all the time I was out I never heard a single shot from anywhere .

On Saturday we had our first shoot which was a small family day , coats came off early and a jumper was more than enough clothing to had on , tomorrow is the start of November and we have already had two months of the inland wildfowling season , it might be the weather and age but up to now I have had very little interest with it being so mild and the marshes as dry as a bone , hopefully better days ahead down here and up your way .   MM

[ditchman]

3 hours ago, greenshank1 said:

It’s so mild , we haven’t had a single frost yet . 
There’s hardly a woodcock in either .

Bird flu was seen in Barnacle geese in Islay last week so it’s not looking good. 

at one time you could set your clock by the arrivalof the woodcock...1st moon in september ? they would be flicking over the dunes in norfolk

[Penelope]

53 minutes ago, marsh man said:

We have got a lot of bird flu on the poultry farms with new cases cropping up every day and yet up to now we seem to have got away with large numbers of wild fowl dying off , several Swans have been found dead on the Broads and we had some dead Pheasants confirmed they had the virus , so at the moment it is in the balance .

As for it being mild , this morning I walked all the way along the river wall and it was like a perfect day in early Summer , also what was noticeable in all the time I was out I never heard a single shot from anywhere .

On Saturday we had our first shoot which was a small family day , coats came off early and a jumper was more than enough clothing to had on , tomorrow is the start of November and we have already had two months of the inland wildfowling season , it might be the weather and age but up to now I have had very little interest with it being so mild and the marshes as dry as a bone , hopefully better days ahead down here and up your way .   MM

Spoke to a friend last week who had a mate go up to Lincolnshire for a 200 bird partridge day; keeper told them to shoot as many pheasants as they wanted at no charge, as they would all be dead in 3 weeks. Lots of pheasant carcasses lying about by all accounts.

[Walker570]

Went down the wood to clean and top up food on the bird tables and had a robin sat alongside me almost touching distance and it was singing it's heart out like it was spring.

Lovely sunny autumn morning  here in Leicestershire.   Told that all poultry on a farm I have to drive through to reach the wood in Lincs are inside windows closed. That is a large egg producing operation and the owner must be having some sleepless nights.  I have neighbours who still have feral chickens, geese etc. wandering about in the village.  Totally irresponsible.

[Old Boggy]

2 hours ago, ditchman said:

at one time you could set your clock by the arrivalof the woodcock...1st moon in september ? they would be flicking over the dunes in norfolk

They must therefore take about two months to come down south as we don`t see any migrant woodcock until the first full moon in November !!

[Krico woodcock]

7 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

They must therefore take about two months to come down south as we don`t see any migrant woodcock until the first full moon in November !!

We are the same,  but there has been years when there is a good sprinkle of them in certain areas the first week in November,  every year is different...last year they weren't to be seen, then third week of November ,boom, WOODCOCK!!.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Krico woodcock

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, Penelope said:

Spoke to a friend last week who had a mate go up to Lincolnshire for a 200 bird partridge day; keeper told them to shoot as many pheasants as they wanted at no charge, as they would all be dead in 3 weeks. Lots of pheasant carcasses lying about by all accounts.

We also had the virus confirmed on our estate although on Saturday we didn't see any dead Pheasants ( except ) the few that were shot as it was a small day and was mainly for the wild duck , at the moment we have got enough duck and Pheasants to see us through the season , but who knows what it will be like in the next few weeks

 

9 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Went down the wood to clean and top up food on the bird tables and had a robin sat alongside me almost touching distance and it was singing it's heart out like it was spring.

Lovely sunny autumn morning  here in Leicestershire.   Told that all poultry on a farm I have to drive through to reach the wood in Lincs are inside windows closed. That is a large egg producing operation and the owner must be having some sleepless nights.  I have neighbours who still have feral chickens, geese etc. wandering about in the village.  Totally irresponsible.

On the news tonight they have now extended the lock in for poultry for the whole of the UK , we are getting new cases in Norfolk nearly everyday and the poultry keepers were saying it should have been done a lot earlier and now it is to late , it aint looking good .

[Walker570]

I have two days back to back in Norfolk at the end of this month.  Still on at this time.

[marsh man]

9 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

I have two days back to back in Norfolk at the end of this month.  Still on at this time.

You should be alright , haven't heard of any cancellations yet , we don't anticipate canceling any , although the keeper was saying the bags will be smaller than we usually have , that is now , this time next week could well be different , fingers crossed . 

[harkom]

11 hours ago, Walker570 said:

I have two days back to back in Norfolk at the end of this month.  Still on at this time.

 

11 hours ago, marsh man said:

ou should be alright , haven't heard of any cancellations yet , we don't anticipate canceling any , although the keeper was saying the bags will be smaller than we usually have , that is now , this time next week could well be different , fingers crossed . 

Will you be permitted to take your share of the birds home, or will the bag end up in a fire as several big shoots are reported to be doing?

[marsh man]

25 minutes ago, harkom said:

 

Will you be permitted to take your share of the birds home, or will the bag end up in a fire as several big shoots are reported to be doing?

Yes we were able to take a brace home , or in my case a pair of good Mallard , we had D E F R A came and analyse one or two dead Pheasants and the chap was saying if a bird had caught the virus it would soon be to sick to fly , so in theory the birds we put up should be alright , we haven't got the first all day shoot for another 10 days so we are not sure how many birds are in the game covers .

On the market two Saturdays ago they had this seasons Mallard and Pheasants at both £4.00 each , oven ready .    A t b   MM

[Walker570]

3 hours ago, harkom said:

 

Will you be permitted to take your share of the birds home, or will the bag end up in a fire as several big shoots are reported to be doing?

Hopefully, yes. It would be a terrible waste otherwise.   I could certainly use two or three brace as my freezer is empty having just eaten the last four partridge.

[harkom]

1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Hopefully, yes. It would be a terrible waste otherwise. 

So if you were to shoot a good number of birds on the day and DEFRA restrictions were in force to prohibit movement of dead game from source would you be comfortable to participate?

Just askin' as Norfolk is a badly infected area and authorities may slap on tighter control measures at short notice. 

[Stonepark]

47 minutes ago, harkom said:

So if you were to shoot a good number of birds on the day and DEFRA restrictions were in force to prohibit movement of dead game from source would you be comfortable to participate?

Just askin' as Norfolk is a badly infected area and authorities may slap on tighter control measures at short notice. 

You can't catch bird flu from wild dead birds unless you are basically snorting their faeces, blood or mucus or licking the aforementioned.

Cooking kills all viruses, including bird flu.

The Bird Flu pandemic is not an issue for humans, unless you happen to have a job hanging about inside poultry sheds as the primary means of transmission is via airborne viral transmission and needs a high level to be absorbed by your mucal linings in eyes, nose, mouth or lungs.

There is no need for keepers of small numbers of outside birds to house their livestock, as long as you accept (like with humans) you may lose a few, but importantly most healthy birds get over the flu as do humans.

All these shut in's do is prevent herd immunity being achieved as quickly as possible. In particular they are designed to protect 'broilers' which being between 1 day and 8 weeks old,  have little or no immunity, nor reserves of fat to fight the flu.

With regards game, as noted above "sick" birds don't fly and tend to get eaten by Mr Fox.

If it was flying when you shot it, handled appropriately and cooked properly, you are more likely to get knocked down by a car, than get bird flu.

 

[Walker570]

2 hours ago, harkom said:

So if you were to shoot a good number of birds on the day and DEFRA restrictions were in force to prohibit movement of dead game from source would you be comfortable to participate?

Just askin' as Norfolk is a badly infected area and authorities may slap on tighter control measures at short notice. 

The law is the law and as an ex law man of course I would comply, but still a terrible waste when a Canada goose can decide to fly from Norfolk into Suffolk if it wishes and I am surrounded by 'hobby' poultry owners who refuse to keep their birds in or even on their own property.

 

on edit in supprt of what Stonepark says.  In the paper today it said only one case of Avian Flu had been fatal in the last 25yrs or more and he was a breeder of ducks.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Walker570

[Scully]

8 hours ago, harkom said:

 

Will you be permitted to take your share of the birds home, or will the bag end up in a fire as several big shoots are reported to be doing?

Which big shoots are these?