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WILDFOWLING - GOOSE
Scotland has some unrivalled wildfowling opportunities for visiting sportsmen, as it is the wintering ground for immense numbers of wild geese, especially greylags and pinkfoot geese. Hundreds of thousands of these birds migrate south each September from various areas of the Arctic and northern Europe, to spend their winters here where the ground and wetlands they need for their feeding is not permanently frozen.
They arrive in huge flocks, sometimes tens of thousands together, and rest for a short time in the north and east of Scotland, before gradually dispersing over most of the country and even further south into England and Wales.
They spend the winter here, feeding on agricultural land on grass or grain stubbles, or whatever takes their fancy, before gathering once again into the huge migrating flocks, collecting in the north of Scotland, them making the great journey back to their breeding grounds again around the end of March each year.
Goose shooting is commonly carried out in one of two ways - either by intercepting them as they fly from their overnight roosting grounds in the large estuaries or lochs to their daytime feeding grounds, or by decoying them on the farmland where they are feeding.
While it is sometimes possible to shoot large numbers of these birds, this is generally not done, with sportsmen being content to shoot enough for their own and their friends’ table use. The sport is in the genuine wildness of the quarry, and the sound of a skein of geese rising from the estuary, or beginning to mill round in the air as they get ready to come in to land beside decoys, is enough to make even the most experienced sportsman find the hair on his neck prickling with the excitement.
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