Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Feb-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

At the weekend, I was chatting to a woman at a party who works as a therapist. She was telling me about how difficult it can be to get men to talk about their feelings — often, she explained, they don’t open up about how they really feel until they are in a miserable place. This morning, I opened the freezer to find a woodcock in a sorry state. Not because it had freezer burn or because it had been shot at too close a range, but because a dog, a springer spaniel from memory, had crunched it. I would like to put it on record that as far as my feelings go, nothing upsets me more than hard-mouthed dogs and, even worse, dog owners who think that the whole…

Email your stories / shootingtimes@futurenet.com Once one of the most evocative sounds of the uplands, the call of the curlew is fading fast from the Dales. Curlew numbers are in sharp decline, with the population halved since the mid-1990s. Keepered grouse moors remain this iconic bird’s last stronghold, but an increasing number of farmers are striving to help these birds. In a bid to reverse the decline in northern England, the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) have launched the Farmland Curlew Award. Nominations are now open, and welcomed from farmers in Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, South and West Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Northumberland. Jayne Dyer from YAS said: “We are pleased to be working with Nidderdale AONB to celebrate curlew…

The unexpected sighting of a female ptarmigan near the summit of Ward Hill on Hoy has shocked birdwatchers, for this was the first ptarmigan to be recorded in Orkney since the last bird was shot there, also on Hoy, in 1831. British ptarmigan are highly sedentary, seldom moving far from where they were hatched, so where this bird has come from is a mystery — the closest breeding ptarmigan in mainland Scotland are 70km away in Caithness. Ptarmigan are the most northerly breeding birds in the world; birds in the high Arctic are partially migratory, though generally moving only short distances. However, evidence that these birds can fly considerable distances over water comes from a record of a covey that arrived on the northern Iceland island of Grímsey. They were…

Last year, Horden Moor Allotments — a very much-hyped 300 acres of partial heather ground in Teesdale — was sold to a deep-pocketed, no doubt well-meaning individual, who promptly donated it to Durham Wildlife Trust. That ended the prospect of anyone, other than a poacher, ever shooting grouse over the land again. The fact that someone was willing to pay — so it was said — an eye-watering £100,000 over the £750,000 asking price to stop anyone shooting on the land, should be a worry to all of us who would like to shoot live quarry. Without the shooting, the land as rough grazing is more or less worthless, in monetary terms. What is really concerning, though, is that, according to articles in the press at any rate, the trust…

The Schöffel gilet has become synonymous with countryside attire, as this smart yet utilitarian garment has sprung up everywhere, from farmers’ fields and lines of beaters to the offices of land agents and gentry nestled into grouse butts. If you go to a game fair or wander the grounds of our agricultural colleges, a fleece gilet is as good as a uniform for those who identify with fieldsports. I am proud to say that I am part of this army of country-philes, when after stealing my father’s Schöffel Oakham gilet five years ago, I found myself living in it. This is not some strange group mentality, or even subliminal signalling to others who ‘know’, but testament to its endless functionality. In the summer as a top-layer, in the winter as…

This is always a strange time of year, I find — not only for me but also for the dogs. For the past six weeks they have been working at full throttle, at least three days most weeks and as many as six on some others. Like a lot of gundog handlers, I have dealt with several injuries (fortunately most of them minor) with a few veterinary visits. All of a sudden, come 2 February, there is nothing. The dogs go from flat out in the field to flat out on the sofa. By the end of the season, I am pretty exhausted and feel the dogs and I are ready for a few weeks’ rest. Some dogs may not have worked quite as intensely and so don’t require as…

The experts THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country DIGGORY HADOKE Vintage gun expert, firearms dealer, author and journalist BRUCE POTTS Shooting Times rifle reviewer and stalker MIKE SWAN Conservation expert and head of education for the GWCT DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL Shropshire gamekeeper, keen wildfowler and amateur naturalist GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter ELLENA SWIFT Award-winning gundog trainer and canine behaviour specialist TIM MADDAMS Former head chef at River Cottage and runs a shoot in Devon SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN…

The story of the seal that installed itself at a small coarse fishery in Essex is a parable of our times. Nobody knows how the seal got to the five-acre pond but, once it was there, it found itself in seal heaven. It is thought to have gorged itself on up to £4,500 worth of carp, catfish and bream in little more than two months. The distraught fishery manager, who leases the site from the local council, had to watch helplessly while the seal literally ate his livelihood. The council eventually agreed to sanction an effort to capture the tubby sea mammal. Two attempts were made by an organisation called British Divers Marine Life Rescue. But the seal – by now nicknamed Nelson because it had an injured eye —…

BOOK After a few years off due to Covid, we are very much looking forward to holding our annual Shooting Times Woodcock Club dinner — this brilliant event will raise money for woodcock conservation. It will be held at the Savile Club in London on Thursday, 1 June. Visit: bit.ly/3EhfeKT TRAIN Did your dog behave perfectly all season long? No, ours neither. Why not book a gundog training session with Ellena Swift or the mighty Ben Randall? A well-behaved dog makes your shooting so much more enjoyable, whereas a naughty dog is a nightmare. It’s worth brushing up on retrieves, sitting on the peg or hunting — next season will be here before you can say ‘syndicate fees’.…

Management of predators could be funded in the future under a Government scheme designed to help wildlife. The new Environmental Land Management schemes will provide suites of payments to boost wildlife through habitat improvement, but there is now recognition that control of predators such as foxes and crows can play a key role in the recovery of vulnerable species — particularly ground-nesting birds. In response to a question in Parliament, Defra minister Trudy Harrison confirmed that the Government is now considering how predator management might be assisted when threatened species are impacted. The move has been embraced by BASC’s head of biodiversity, Ian Danby. “This is a very welcome change in direction,” he commented. “For years, Government has been funding habitat improvement but the species they are trying to help…

Email your letters / stletters@futurenet.com LETTER OF THE WEEK Fowler falls foul of falling fowl I was fortunate enough to be out wildfowling on the last Saturday of the season when a small skein of greylag geese came over me at about 30 yards. I shot the first bird out in front then moved on to another and, as I pulled the trigger, ‘Bang!’ I came round some time later (I’m not sure how long) in the bottom of the hide with my dog licking me, a dreadful headache and neck pains I cannot describe. I assumed my gun had blown up with a bad cartridge. After locating my broken glasses I found no damage to me or my gun, so I must have been hit by the first goose…

As I head out at first light now, there is an almost tangible sense that we are exiting the long and dark nights of winter. Admittedly, it has been colder most of this past week, but that has not deterred the woodpigeons, which have been booming away with that monotonous cooing song that many folk detest, though I rather like it. They are already clattering around in the holly and hawthorn, building their nests, although the ragged and haphazard collections of twigs are not really worthy of being called nests, and they are nothing like the intricate structures usually associated with our avian neighbours. The ‘woodies’ are one of the first birds to lay, and soon two white eggs will begin to appear on these flimsy platforms. With lengthening daylight…

DO FIELD TRIALS have a future? What started as a series of wagers (stakes) between the dog handlers of major landowners in the early years of the 20th century has evolved into hundreds of regulated trials run by societies. Around 85 gundog clubs run retriever trials, on which the Kennel Club (KC) has always had a monopoly — trials can only be run by clubs that it has licensed to do so. All dogs competing have to be KC-registered, while anyone or any club attempting to run an independent trial without approval can be sure of reprisals. Though there can be no questioning the dedication of the KC’s field trial office, nor the hard work of its sub-committee, there’s growing concern at the apparent indifference of the club to pressures…

The number of cashpoints is dwindling across the UK, according to data published by Link, the UK’s largest cash machine network. There are now around 39,400 free-to-use machines, the lowest number since 2008. Cashpoints offer a vital lifeline to rural communities, many of which still work largely in cash. An online map of cashpoints is available from Link — search for ‘cash locator’ online. If the nearest machine is more than 1km away, individuals can request a free-to-use cashpoint be added. According to Nick Quin, Link’s head of financial inclusion, “we’re using about 40% less cash than we were pre-Covid”.…

Skylarks have returned to Galloway. It’s always a seminal moment of spring and it falls with surprising reliability around 12 or 13 February. They’re not the first signs of change, but they are a signal moment in the changing year, and the little birds have an extraordinary ability to brighten an otherwise drab and lonely world. What a difference larks make on the moor behind my house. It lies in almost total silence throughout the winter, only a home for owls and the occasional snipe. Nothing breathes more than the merest whisper of noise from the end of October. And then, as if from nowhere, the sun breaks through the low cloud for half an hour in the morning and the larks begin as if they had never stopped, full…

A CLASSIC SERIES REVISITED The prospects were far from good; with a flat calm and wall-to-wall sunshine predicted for my last Medway day of the 2022-23 season, I might have abandoned the plan in favour of something potentially more productive. But failure to go at least once in February would be letting my predecessors down, as Simon Garnham explained in his recent Jottings for wildfowlers (8 February). On arrival at the dock we were in a right pea-souper. By the time we were afloat it was almost noon and the sun had still not broken through. I was beginning to get quite enthusiastic; I have fond memories of several wonderful tide flights when the birds loomed out of the fog, spotted the decoys and pitched in like kamikaze pilots. I…

I recently read an article on how dog ownership is good for our mental well-being. I’m sure it is. It’s also good for our physical health, too. I always, without exception, do a dog walk before breakfast and it’s open to debate as to whether this is really for human or canine benefit. In the dark days of midwinter these walks are not always a pleasure, but now, with the days noticeably lengthening every 24 hours, they are. I never fail to be delighted by how the natural world responds to the imminent arrival of spring. Yellow is the colour of early spring, thanks to the lesser celandines that carpet the woodland floor, the primroses in the hedge banks and the male brimstone butterflies patrolling the rides, roused by the…

RICHARD NEGUS IS A PROFESSIONAL HEDGE LAYER AND WRITER. HE IS A KEEN WILDFOWLER AND HAS A PASSION FOR GREY PARTRIDGES Do you know what today is?” I asked, bursting with theatrical excitement into my son’s bedroom. I switched on his dazzling main light in the style of a Guards Depot barrack room instructor. “Rejoice, it’s the best day in February,” I added to the shape lying motionless under a duvet. It let out a muffled mutter, “Go away, Dad”. I left the lump to stir himself, exiting the room, carefully stepping over the man traps he had set — strewn books, crisping rugby socks and spent AA batteries liberally littered the floor. I made my way downstairs to make coffee. Five minutes later, thumping sounds from overhead reassured me…

It’s coming up to that time of year when the nights are finally getting shorter and the days are becoming longer. The weather is changing as we leave winter behind and enter spring, the season of life. With this seasonal change also comes a change in what and how we eat. Venison is one of those meats that can make this adjustment well — from hearty stews to lighter braises and from winter roasts to grills and barbecues. Although there is no set way to eat venison, some dishes just seem to fit the time of year. This recipe has very few ingredients and uses a cut that would normally be used for dicing or mincing — the shoulder. This can be a tough piece of meat, but as a…