When anticipation turns to excitement!

We were all ready in our blinds waiting for the sun to rise. We hoped that it would bring with it flights of geese, and it did...they were just all heading to the crop fields! After some great bags all ready this year, where everything went right, it was time to really hunt some birds! We had the flag working over time, and Dave and I really worked the callers hard on any birds that were close enough to hear it..and even on some that weren't, in that forlorn hope to swing birds off their natural flight path, and to stop following all their friends to the fields of crop.

We did manage to bring a few around after what felt like years on the callers. Every goose hunter knows how hard it is to turn birds away from where they want to go, but none the less, we were on the board, it wasn't easy, and it was great really working the birds into the spread. More importantly, it was Dan's first goose with me, so all in all, we were all pretty happy.

We got a lot happier when Mr Farmer came down to see us as we were packing up.


"I've heard from my neighbour, your good to go, he says to go hammer 'em".

We passed on our thanks, cleaned our birds, loaded the trailer, and we were gone. We knew the birds fed there in both the mornings and evenings, so we wanted to be set up well before they arrived that afternoon. With a dust cloud trailing fast behind us, we headed back east.

As always seems to be the case, no matter how early you set up for an afternoon hunt, one goose (if your lucky) always arrives early! we missed the one, but we were set up in plenty of time to get the mob of 7 that came in minutes later. With the majority of the early risers on the deck, we then had a wait of about an hour, before we reckoned the fun would start.

Two hours later, and the birds were late! We were kept entertained by good flights of Paradise Shelduck, but where were the geese?! We had watched them the evening before, and normally you can set your watch by them. Not today. We needn't have worried. It wasn't long before we had geese coming in from all directions, we didn't know where to look. A good number of birds were roosting quite close to us, and the shooting put them off, but thankfully, either they came back, or birds came in off another roost to give us a great evening shoot on the stubble.

Dave, Dan and Paul with a great mixed bag on the stubble