Bog Myrtle & Peat

If anything, there are probably more pink footed geese around just now than there were last month. It’s impossible to spend more than a few seconds outside without hearing that cheery cackle, and massive skeins over the house are now so common as to have lost some of their sparkle. Heading out to the fields with Richard and his 10 bore again this morning, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Lapwings screeched in the gloom as we set up the silhouettes and found somewhere to hide beneath a blackthorn tree.

Within twenty minutes, we had struck gold. The limitations of the 10 bore last time proved to be its strengths this time around, and when a small skein of less than a dozen birds soared silently over, high above us, the lumbering cannon cracked the lead bird head-on. It would have been well out of range for a 12 bore, and the extra few feet were precisely what was needed. Some other birds showed interest in the decoys, but few were prepared to commit and come within range.

As the day brightened, the decoys were revealed in all their amateur glory. They were painted up as canada geese in September, but an attempt to rehabilitate them as pinkfoots using “terracotta” acrylic paint has left them looking like a hybrid of the two. No wonder the birds weren’t interested in the odd birds as they flew in skein after skein high off overhead.

When a huge skein of more than a thousand clattered up from a field way infront of us, we had fingers crossed that they might come over, but despite my best efforts with the goose call, only one ventured over. We were both so engrossed by it that we didn’t notice more than a dozen canada geese sweep in at low level to join the teal decoys in the wet splash. In the ensuing chaos, shots were fired, but nothing was even slightly touched. We had both underestimated how important it is to keep your cool when shooting geese…

In the final half hour, a small skein raced over the soaking field towards the decoys, and all but one broke off before the final descent. Richard levelled the mighty 10 bore, but before he could pull the trigger, I poached it from over him with 3″ of BB shot. It crash landed into the stubble behind, stone dead and without so much as a flutter. There really is something to this goose shooting lark, and if we can redecorate the decoys, we might stand a chance of some more excellent sport before the birds move on again.