Getting to grips with a bittern

I have reached the age when I cannot enjoy shooting nor shoot with any degree of accuracy when I am standing in a hide with my feet in icy water and a bitter nor’-easter blows flurries of snow round my head.

And if the temperature is above freezing for most of Tanuary the duck population on our rivers is meagre in the extreme. Most of our resident mallard and teal move off for the benefit of those who shoot in more southern latitudes. I am not quite certain where this is, but have a suspicion that it is Spain.

On the solitary day of the duck season this year when I did steel myself to face the elements, a rise in the temperature