As the walking Gun for the last drive, I had one eye scanning for a bird going back, the other at the sun falling lower in the western sky. A cock pheasant erupted from my feet, I lifted my gun, then lowered it; it was a better bird for the standing Guns.
We had had the most wonderful day on a family shoot where everyone mucks in, and over some of Staffordshire and Shropshire’s most beautiful farmland. What was to come, however, was something else again, in a hidden Eden.
The farm, predominantly dairy, is gloriously wild-bird and wildfowl friendly. When my host’s father first took over the shoot, the season’s tally of ducks stood at two. With a focus on improving insect life, ponds were restored and created, rivers and streams allowed to rewild and meander where they will and a series of
