Pre-season control

I arrived at the farm early; it would be another hour and a half before dusk but I wanted to get set up on the bank in the middle of the bowl at the end of the valley, where I knew I’d have a good view of the surrounding banks and field edges. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon – a welcome reprieve from what seemed like weeks of wet and windy weather – yet the temperature was little more than a couple of degrees above freezing.

Shouldering the rifle in its drag bag, I ambled back down the track to a gateway which gave a good vista from the bank down into the bowl below. Through habit, I walked quietly