The packing up and loading of gear came with special anticipation. A Christmas or New Year trip to south-west Scotland is an annual event for the Swans, but late October for autumn half-term is less common.
By Christmas, the local wildfowlers have thoroughly educated the birds and most morning flights involve watching the geese fly low over the flats before climbing at least two gunshots high as they cross the shoreline where someone might be hiding. Come evening flight, the routine is reversed, with skein after skein coming out high before whiffling down way out over the tide or flats to settle for the night.
By late December, the duck are just as wary and a blank week is a distinct possibility, even in the supposedly easier inland situations. So this year’s decision by Herself
