Wildfowling season 2022/ 2023. How was your season with highlights.

[B B]

Here we are again another season on the point of ending. And i must say its been a great season for me on the shores. Dispite the birdflu concerns and restrain call it went just fine.

  I seemed to barely put a footv wrong, i even had times i was forced to go where i did not think i stood much of a chance of a shot and walked off with geese.

  I had a few good Widgeon flights where i had to slow down and pick my shots or i would easily have been getting too Greedy if you get my drift.

   I had a very memorable moon flight in Dingwall on greys and it was bloody cold but magical.  A nice bright but cold morning on the wash was incredible and the opportunities that morning surprised me, but i held back and a perfect straight above me skein had the end two birds on the right wing fall. and i left very content indeed.

 a morning near Milton on the pinks another one i enjoyed and the widgeon flight after the geese went left me with 3 Pinks and 5 widgeon more than enough for my wants and i packed up and went home.  Overall a great season, a welcome change from the down years of covid etc and i really feel its been a breath of fresh air.

 

[Spr1985]

I had my second season on the foreshore this season (unfortunately cut short due to an accident in a lorry and a knackered shoulder) really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Had plenty of teal and mallard but the pinnacle would have to be taking my first pintail. I missed far more than I connected with but that’s all part of the learning curve….which will continue next season. 

[Charlie Anderson]

I enjoyed my season and despite the usual issues, guns malfunctioning, wrong place or wrong time I felt I'm improving. My trip north was great as always with the best chance coming on the Tuesday night when me and my pal were in the right place and the geese played ball. Shame my gun got covered in grit\sand and died but we did have some great chances. Firsts for season using the 10 bore on the beach, boy that can kick, harvesting a shoveler and tufty  not to be repeated.  Having a very slight understanding of the fens I feel I am getting better results but not living locally comes with its challenges. Overall I look forward to doing it all again and seeing the moon on the water and hearing birds on  the wing even if you don't get shot just being there is just magical. 

[Ferretlurcher1970]

My high light was shooting a Canada / barnacle highbred , with my new double 8

[Dave at kelton]

Been an odd season here on the Solway. Geese early, then none but coming good at the end of the season. I finished with a pink this morning during a hell of a flight but largely too high. I doubt I will have time to get out tonight; we'll see. Highlight was shooting the snows in the blizzard in Canada and the Solway flight both of which I have written up and posted on here. Have some GoPro footage to play about with off season to wet my appetite for the next!

[Poor Shot]

Quite a poor season here. Very warm and unseasonal weather at the start meant there wasn't much in the way of migratory birds arriving and what did arrive stayed inland on the reens and dykes. November and December seemed to be the best weatherwise but due to work and/or game shooting commitments I didn't really get a chance to go out. End of January and all of February unusually calm and very poor fowling conditions.

I did get a few days out with one of this years probationary members and naturally let him take most of any birds that presented themselves. Hopefully he will have enjoyed his days out and rejoin next year as a result.

No geese spotted this year other than a resident flock of Canadas which never presented themselves.

Managed 1 x Teal which fell onto open sea and kept diving away from the dog so wasn't picked.

Must do better next year.

[marsh man]

I am pretty sure that this past season was below average , the thing is , what is average ? , from my own point of view , I don't think we had nowhere near the number of geese we would normally expect , having said that we have got a lot of fowlers who are only interested in the geese and on all accounts they have had a reasonably decent season , as much as I like dropping onto the odd goose I still like a good duck flight .

I started on the first days in November and with having a few splashes I was getting the odd duck(s) from the word go , nothing special but enough to keep you happy , we are a funny lot in a nice sort of way , we can go a few flights with hardly seeing a duck let alone having a few shots , then your change where duck are everywhere , you would think after a run of blank flights you would fill your boots as well as your game bag , but you don't , if I get half a dozen I now find that's enough , this past season getting six duck in a flight didn't happen that often , but it did happen and all the old hands I know got more than enough duck for there own needs .

So to sum it up , it wasn't a brilliant season but it could had been a lot , lot worse with us being in Norfolk we were in the worse area in the country for the Avian flu , as it turned out it didn't cause any problems .

Hope you all had at what you would call a decent season 

[scolopax]

Should have been a better than average season but in general I shot badly. Had a couple of very good goose flights but took too many shots to take what I wanted. 
 

Before Christmas at the end of the freeze up I had a phenomenal teal flight into a small weedy flash but again my shooting let me down, duck in the dark, especially teal in the dark, have never been my strong point and that night was worse than normal. I think the ratio was 1 in 6 shots. 
 

Later I had a couple of flights in February where I saw almost nothing, and if it was not for binoculars I would have thought there wasn’t a bird on the estuary. 
 

in summary it was a season of what could have beens. 

[Smudger687]

Highlight for me was a 2-for-1 on Canada geese with the 10 bore.