Hanging with dad, and the Big V

Wednesday was walkup day around Lakelands. Got a really good insight into the property, and how to access the swampland at the end of the farm. Lake "Tikotiko" at the end of the farm has rolling grass paddocks down to the waters edge, and there were geese present ... lots of geese. Rick was out after geese on Wednesday on Waikare, they got 3 but he was complaining about the wind being wrong. Our bag was quite mixed:



16 Pheasant
3 Hares
3 Magpies
1 Feral cat
1 Hedgehog


I got a melanistic bird as well, was going to get him stuffed but ended up plucking him! I may never shoot another, so consider myself double blessed. But my dear readers, I can say this - the first time is best. It was a really hard shot on this bird but I appreciated the early season bird much much more.


Rachael's dog Pippet is fantastic, I'm really switching onto Spaniels now in a big way. Beam was great also, working very close to the Big V all day. Some retrieving issues to iron out but still a really solid performance.


The blue bird: