Morning on the Geese

Tom Sykes enlisted the help of his brother Jack and spent a day ambushing some wily geese

- Tom Sykes

Last year I was on a successful duck flight on the river when I noticed a large number of pink-footed geese flighting in the area and dropping into the neighboring marsh. After dumping my gear back at the car, I headed to the access point with my Lab, Goose, and my binoculars to see what was going on.

The wonderful distinctive pink-foot call could be clearly heard as the geese fed and milled about on the marsh top, with small parties joining all the time. Keen to make full use of this situation, I phoned my brother, Jack, to tell him the news and discuss the best plan of attack, which was to intercept the geese the following morning. While on the phone I kept a keen eye on the birds, watching their movements and flight lines onto the marsh.

Ambush

Most of our goose shooting is done by flighting and intercepting them as they move between the mud and their desired inland feeding ground. However, the spot we chose gave us a chance to dust off the decoys and see if we could convince them to settle among us. As it was getting towards the end of the season, we left our goose rags at home and took a handful of old shells and a few full-bodied decoys to be more realistic for the wise birds.