Bag
31 Pheasants
4 Pigeon
1 Jay
From Alistair
Well, you might have called it the glorious First (of Feb)!
We fortuitously escaped the snow storms raging down south, though the day did start off a tad chilly.
The thermometer was reading minus 8c at the homes of several of the guns as they set off for Tulchan, but it rose to a roasting minus 4 by the time we congregated at the glamping hut where Stevie had already lit the stove in advance of us arriving.
Frank had sufficiently recovered from his flu to be able to join us though was not yet back to his full self.
We were joined by Bobby (beater) and his Dad both armed with their dogs and shotguns making I think a total of 8 guns.
As in the carol, the ground was hard as iron meaning there was none of the usual danger of getting stuck in the mud for either guns or vehicles.
The first drive was at the roundels which we were unable to fully cover all escape routes due to our numbers. From there we swung up to the boulders, followed by the Keillor Road. Again it was impossible to cover all the flushing points and some pheasants continued to take full advantage of this, even though we moved guns down during the drive into the Tattie field. By this time the sun was shining brightly making it pleasantly warm, but making it difficult to see the birds when they came.
Lastly, before lunch, we drove from the weedy field to the tattie field. This time none of the birds that crossed the road into said field lived to tell the tale.
After lunch, it had started to cloud over with the temperature dropping with the northwesterly breeze. The arm was encircled with disappointing results.
Finally, we finished with Frank’s blowhole and those in Frank’s firld were able to enjoy a light flurry of snow.
I think everyone had shot a bird by the end of the day- some enjoying a bumper score- Stevie, for instance, had accounted for 11 pheasants. Others had had a more modest experience, but still very enjoyable none the less.
The final bag was 31 pheasants, four pigeons (one looked a bit brown) and one jay making a total score of 37.
Neil had set a target for us of 36 pheasants which at the start of the day had sounded a bit ambitious for the time of the season. However, we very nearly made it and if we had been joined by another gun or two to plug the gaps in the line, then we would have undoubtedly reached it.
We took photos and divided up the bag leaving for home shortly after 2:30 pm.
The next high light on the calendar will be the AGM.
Best wishes to all,
Alistair.