Geese at first light or on a moon-flight

Morning flight is the surest source of spectacle for a wildfowler but a moonlit night can offer a touch of magic

- IAN COGHILL

Nostalgia is a trap for the unwary. Those who love to hunt, shoot and fish are particularly vulnerable with, in some cases, a bit of justification. What salmon fisherman, in their right mind, would not feel nostalgic for even an average season of 20 or 30 years ago? Where would you find a stag hunter who did not look back with fondness to the 1960s and ’70s? That said, it is fatal to let the past ruin the present. The old hunting saying, ‘That there is no such thing as a bad day, it’s just that some are better than others’, still approximates to the truth.

The other trick with nostalgia is that usually we see ourselves as differently as the times we revisit. My own nostalgia trip sees me trotting home after an exceptional morning, my private pack clustered about my second horse, having caught a leash in style. I spring from the saddle at the steps of my Palladian mansion, throw my horse’s reins to the second whip and push through the huge doors before the butler has time to open them. Sadly, this is, of course, fantasy. If I’d been lucky, I would have been the second whip and, more likely, the pigman’s assistant.

Forget looking for better times in the past, focus on making the present as good as it can be. The good news is that many sports are better than they have ever been and, subject to there being life after COVID-19, they are likely to remain so. One of these, chasing wild geese, happens to be a life’s passion for me and, on the evidence of direct observation over a long life wildfowling for grey geese, it has never been more rewarding.