Saturday 3rd November - time for some sport

After weeks of working on my catalogue I am planning to get away from my desk more from now on. Today was our first day at the pheasants in Llanbrynmair, and a splendid day it was! The weather held fine and we have a great stock of birds - everyone shot well and we had a fine bag. I finished the day by taking some corn to a small flight pond that I have discovered. An odd mixture of woodcock and bats were flying around as I arrived in the dusk, but I left both in peace, instead bagging a rabbit. I don't get many bunnies and was pleased when my snap-shot at its bobbing scut bowled it over. Then I waited to see if anything was visiting the pond and was rewarded with a brace of mallards. Rico had a lot of work this morning so I'm glad his rabbit and the ducks off the pond in the darkness were straightforward retrieves. He's sustained a few cuts and bruises today, but will have a week to recover before our next day out. I'm off to the Fly Fair in Galway next weekend, but after that I hope to be either be shooting or picking up several times as week - and then I need to go grayling fishing!