Thread: Game bird diary for all

So happy to be back out there on opening morning after missing last year with the Rona. Did not see many mallards/greys but plenty of parries in the air, mostly passing us by to a field of recently cut maize nearby.
Managed 26 parries between 3 shooters and a single mallard on day one (10/1 myself). I went on a run around 5:15 pm to push the birds off the field and ran back to the blind all sweaty to get the birds coming in as the light died. On Sunday, we split up, and I shot the field in a liedown blind. Managed to call two greys into range and spent the day missing plenty of parries right in front of me. I was in LaLa land, and a flock of about 20 parries silently swung from behind me, just about landing on me and the decoy spread. I fumbled for the gun and burst out of the blind, only to leave my safety on. Argh! Decided to pack up with 8 parries, 2 greys and a plover in the bag.

Overall a great weekend. My young brown lab Bruce was hesitant at first, still hesitant of gunfire, but quickly realised bangs meant ducks (some of the time at least) and started working well. Best retrieve of the weekend, he cleared a creek to chase a wounded parrie that had hidden in some long grass. He landed directly on top of it, letting out a "honk" under his weight. He then pulled it out of the grass by the head like a bird pulling a worm and trotted it back over, quite happy with himself. Such a good feeling seeing him put it together and have all the work throughout the year training pay off. Hopefully just the start of a good season ahead. I would love to get the pup on some pheasants at some point.