David's Digest

"Are you busy this afternoon?" said my east Norfolk friend on the phone. Not particularly, I said warily, not wanting to let myself in for something I might not enjoy. But in truth it is pretty relaxed around here at present after such an ideal autumn and the only thing I had planned was to write another blog. "Well, a few of us are going duck shooting on my lake", my friend continued, " and I wondered if you'd like to come?".

I'd heard about his duck shoots although never before been on one. He's close enough to the marshes and the Broads to have a lot of duck of all kinds and it was clearly a chance not to be missed. The blog went by the board and I gathered up my shooting gear and set off east. This was yesterday afternoon.

An hour or so later I had met with my friend and his six other guests and well before dark he settled us into our hides beside the lake. The action was slow at first with just a few high mallard skimming over. But as the sky began to darken great flocks appeared. Teal flashed by almost too fast to see and my swing wasn't fast enough to even fire at them.

Then a formation of geese flew over. The host had said "have a go at the geese if they come", so I did. And I got one! Probably because they were bigger and slower than the teal.

By the time our host blew his whistle to signal it was too dark to continue I'd had a lot of shots, I'd brought down a few mallard and a few teal to join the goose. A team of dogs swam out to pick up what we had shot. Not a big bag but we'd all had a lot of fun. Thanks James.