The wild west

Patience pays off for Mike Swan during a goose shooting jaunt to south-west Scotland

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 that we should have a half-term holiday to see the family in and around Lockerbie was just fine with me. Having had a distinctly slow start to the season, with two sessions on the Medway wrecked by hooligans on jet skis racing through the (private) marsh at high tide, I had high hopes of a shot or two at slightly less wary than usual Scottish birds — when I was allowed out.

Hopes dashed

Driving up after school on a Friday, we met with the inevitable M6 traffic chaos and arrived in the wee small hours of Saturday. Crossing over Annan Bridge later that day rather dashed my hopes. There was far too much gravel visible and it was clear that our Dorset home had seen much more autumn rain.