Is January The Finest Month?

As far as mean temperatures are concerned this month is the new December — but this is good news for shooters, says Ed Wills

- Ed Wills

January, for most of the nation, is the cruellest month. From Stornoway to the Scillies people are in credit card debt doldrums, their clothes no longer fit and family relations — after all that lovely time together at Christmas — are invariably fraught.

For those like you and me, however, January is the most wonderful time of the year. The migratory ducks are arriving in force on our shores and the cock pheasants are strutting about looking delightfully plump. The pheasants, in particular, are stronger, faster, wilder, and fly much higher than those early birds in the first week of October.

There is more meat and fat on them, making them better birds for the table. Not only have they improved their physical stature through the season but their behavior has changed too. They are now well aware of the flight lines that will outsmart the Guns and will readily take their chance to double back if it becomes available. This makes them devilishly hard to anticipate and walked-up cock pheasants provide excellent sport.

Dr Joah Madden, associate professor of psychology at the University of Exeter, studied the behavioral aspects of pheasants in the season and found that shy birds manage to evade predators and Guns until the end of the season. So not all pheasants are ‘bird-brained’; perhaps only the bold ones.

Control

Not only are the birds more switched on, but the Guns in the line generally are too. January becomes the time to clear up loose ends and make sure that the cock pheasant population is under control. All too frequently, shoots do not focus enough attention on the male gender and the hen pheasant suffers for it in the spring when she becomes overwhelmed by male visitors with only reproduction on their minds.