scolopax Posted August 31 Report Share Posted August 31 Anyone bother with a bit of pre season reconnaissance these days? Have you seen anything encouraging? it will be mid week before I can get out so it is another year I do not christen the morning season of the first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moongeese Posted August 31 Report Share Posted August 31 I have been out on reconnaissance for several weeks. Canada goose numbers increasing on every visit, not seen a lot of duck yet , but enough to keep me happy. Seem to be more Grelag breeding here each year, which is good. My granddaughter took a photograph out of the farm office window of a number of pinks, dont know if early arrivals or a build up of local birds that were pricked and survived, or youngsters left behind last seson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted August 31 Report Share Posted August 31 Yes we have got several duck , increasing each year are the semi domesticated flocks of Greylag and good numbers of Canada geese , we have to wait till the third or forth week of September till we start to see the skeins of Pinks arriving although we do get reports of the odd family party seen a week or so earlier . Part of the reason to the increase in duck numbers are the fields being dug out to encourage wildfowl and waders besides the reserves , this is nice to see but the numbers are soon decreased by the many heavy fed flight ponds that are scattered about both on the marshes and also on the uplands , it's alright us talking about bag numbers , but the only numbers some of these flight pond know is when they count up when the so called flight is over . Good Luck to those who are out from tomorrow onwards . MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scolopax Posted September 1 Author Report Share Posted September 1 11 hours ago, marsh man said: Yes we have got several duck , increasing each year are the semi domesticated flocks of Greylag and good numbers of Canada geese , we have to wait till the third or forth week of September till we start to see the skeins of Pinks arriving although we do get reports of the odd family party seen a week or so earlier . Part of the reason to the increase in duck numbers are the fields being dug out to encourage wildfowl and waders besides the reserves , this is nice to see but the numbers are soon decreased by the many heavy fed flight ponds that are scattered about both on the marshes and also on the uplands , it's alright us talking about bag numbers , but the only numbers some of these flight pond know is when they count up when the so called flight is over . Good Luck to those who are out from tomorrow onwards . MM Aye, the Americans have some progressive thoughts on feeding flight ponds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted September 1 Report Share Posted September 1 1 hour ago, scolopax said: Aye, the Americans have some progressive thoughts on feeding flight ponds It don't really make a lot of sense where club members and individuals are asked to impose bag limits and many of us would had done that without being asked , even on my marshes I rented I would stop shooting well before I reached my self imposed limit , these ponds can take staggering numbers and a lot of it is down to pounds , shillings and pence , these are not fed day after day with loads of grain just to ask a few friends to have a evening duck flight , they are used to purely make money and on paper they are not doing nothing wrong , much like commercial game shooting , even the smaller ponds can take good numbers but most of these are shot with large gaps in between one flight to another . No doubt there will be changes one day , but I cannot see it happening any time soon . MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pushandpull Posted September 1 Report Share Posted September 1 100 % MM. It makes nonsense of the "sustainable shooting code of practice". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted September 2 Report Share Posted September 2 23 hours ago, Pushandpull said: 100 % MM. It makes nonsense of the "sustainable shooting code of practice". This morning when I went out it was easily in the top ten , if not the top five best ( weather related ) mornings of the Summer , clear Blue sky and warm enough to only have on a short sleeve shirt ,plus trousers of course ☺️ I went down to the river slightly earlier than I would normally go to see and hear any shooting going on , all the local marshes along the side of the estuary I was on were virtually shot free which is not surprising now as no crops are grown and with 100s of horses and cattle grazing , these are normally left alone until the livestock are taking off , or the odd one get flooded after heavy rain . All the shooting I heard was from a area that hold several large flight ponds that can be shot in any wind direction , from the time I got down there to when I was on my way back which was around 8.15 the shooting was nearly non stop and it settled down around 8 am , I would hate to think what the final bag was but I can bet a pound to a penny that it would be more than a lot of wildfowlers would get in a lifetime , and as far as the heat was concerned it was 21 in my motor when I was on my way home .have a good day MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.