Hunter’s paradox
RICHARD NEGUS IS A PROFESSIONAL HEDGE LAYER AND WRITER. HE IS A KEEN WILDFOWLER AND HAS A PASSION FOR GREY PARTRIDGES
At Flea Barn from spring and through early summer, Ed Nesling and I run a trapping line. Half-a-dozen New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) 150 traps, a Perdix double squirrel and four Larsen traps. Each day when I got home, my son Charlie would watch over my shoulder as I noted the tally of pests accounted for in my computer’s calendar. For weeks he had plagued me, asking to tag along when I do my rounds, and I finally acquiesced.
I had no qualms about his
