As I have done for the last thirty years, I made my usual dawn visit to the reserve sea wall to see how many wildfowlers had turned up and to chat with them as they returned homeward along the sea wall. As you can see below it was a spectacular dawn sky as I made my way across the reserve, through the cattle and a light mist that was rising and there was a surprising nip in the air as well, just 8 degrees at first.
On reaching the sea wall and glancing along the saltings I was able to make out just six wildfowlers spread out at regular distances and below you can see one of them, optimistically waiting for a goose or duck to fly past.
Now did they actually shoot anything, well no. With the tide in front of the saltings being low, there were around eighty Greylag Geese on the exposed mudflats and all becoming more and more vocal as they got close to flighting inland. Eventually, as the sun rose above the eastern horizon, there came a great clamouring of geese calls and rather than cross the saltings where the wildfowlers were waiting, they flew along the mudflats for several hundred yards and then turned inland where there were no wildfowlers. Now geese are incredibly intelligent and wary birds but I really feel that today they were simply just lucky. One thing's for sure, there were some incredibly frustrated wildfowlers who came back along the sea wall afterwards.
Is it the same wildfowlers year after year?
ReplyDeleteVery much Wilma, until old age and arthritis catches up with them. Occasional new faces do appear from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI can't help being pleased about this Derek but of course there is a season for wildfowling and they are sticking to it. You always seem to take it in your stride each year. I must try to do the same.
ReplyDeleteDerek, I can't help feel that those guys were out on the marsh simply to enjoy the ritual of the opening morning rather than think they were in with a realistic chance? The weather conditions were hardly conducive for successful wildfowling. Those old school shooters are just as much part of the countryside as any other group - long may they remain legally able to chase their dreams, as we are able to pursue our own - Dyl
ReplyDeleteAt times, us birders should stop and realise that the wildfowlers and fishermen have been doing it a lot longer than we have. Room for us all...
ReplyDeleteThree good and sensible comments from The Weaver, Dylan and Steve, there should always be room for all of us and our different pursuits in the countryside, it's what's kept the countryside the way it is all these years.
ReplyDeleteIn your judgement my comment will not appear "good and sensible". Having grown up in the countryside myself, I think that the only things folk should use to shoot wildfowl with are cameras. With declining bird numbers, I believe that society and the law need to adopt a different attitude to the killing of wild birds. The philosophy of "live and let live" is all very well and good in various aspects of life but sometimes its application is highly questionable.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you want to shoot wildfowl with a camera; you can't eat a picture?
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure you are fully aware, declining bird numbers have little to do with shooting/hunting but lots to do with changes to agricultural practices and climate change. Examine the wildlife on a well managed shooting estate against that on an arable prairie. There is very little living in 100 acres of wheat.
No. You can't eat a picture Colin but you can look at it and appreciate the beauty of avian evolution. Thankfully, killing wildfowl with guns is an activity that only appeals to a tiny minority of British men.
DeleteHi YP. Although I love wildfowling I don't necessarily enjoy killing wildfowl and I think that many genuine wildfowlers would agree with that. What we do have is an overwhelming love of nature, the countryside and odd though it may seem, the quarry.
DeleteAlthough only a tiny minority of British Men hunt with guns the urge to hunt is in most of us. Bird watchers/ringers, Butterfly and Moth trappers and Fishermen all have it. Maybe it will be bred out of us at sometime in the future and we will start to get excited when we go hunting in Aldi.
Regards
As you predicted YP, and I pretty much agree with Mr. Cross. The two examples that he cites have a far, far, bigger impact on wild bird numbers than does shooting. The only possible exception being the Hen Harrier situation.
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