Bog Myrtle & Peat

The month long shooting ban placed on wildfowl comes to an end at midnight tonight, and from where I’m standing, it has never looked like a better time to be a goose shooter. Thousands of birds have been sitting on the fields around my house, and the clamour is almost constant. Heading out to the oak woods this afternoon to do a spot of ferreting, something disturbed a massive flock of pink foots, and three entire fields lifted into the air like dust off a rug. They circled round and round for ten minutes, then sagged back to earth again. Just before landing, I spotted one end of the skein settling in a field around half a mile from where the birds at the other end were coming down. I have never seen so many geese in one place, and despite my total lack of experience and equipment, I am sorely tempted by the idea of having a crack at them.

Given that the massed flocks have been destroying entire fields of reseeded grass over the past month, finding a cooperative farmer shouldn’t be too difficult.