Gunner's Calendar - January 2016

Gunner at Fulletby Shoot 21-01-2011

It seems appropriate that the first Blog of 2016 should start with Gunner! He may no longer be with us but his spirit is very much still here.

This was an easy choice of photo for the First Month of the Calendar year.
Firstly, because it was taken at Fulletby Shoot - where we learned our 'trade' - and secondly because this was "Gunner's Pose". When he wasn't on the go this was how he sat: motionless, silent, watchful and waiting: Slightly ahead or to the side of me... never close beside me..... his eyes and nose firmly fixed on the land ahead where the action was going to happen. He would sit like that for 10, 15, 20 minutes... however long it was necessary to wait beween drives; as soon as he heard "Right chaps off we go and take it steady" (that's what most of the keepers and beat captains seem to say!) he would quiver and wait for a signal from me.....  never moving until I told him to....
The chap in the background is called Pete. In typical Lincolnshire fashion, he didn't say much or directly talk to us for a long while... he was a wildfowler.... so this was pretty tame stuff to him.... but Gunner eventually earned his respect...

Fulletby shoot was special (it 'ended' two or three seasons back). It was our first. The keeper spotted us when Gunner was about 9 mths old; we were walking across the fields with Lancer and Pilot and he stopped and asked if I "picked up with those dogs"? I replied that the hope was to do so with the youngest if he turned out alright. "Give me a ring if he does" he said, driving off.
We bumped into him again 6 months or so later and he said I should bring the dog along to the yard at the start of the season! I hadn't really got a clue what he was talking about but I said "Yes" I'd do that!!!!  I found out when the first date was and went along, not knowing what to expect. I found a number of men of mature years and a couple of younger ones; some dogs (One, a large yellow lab, bounded up to Gunner and near frightened him out of his skin!!) a couple of tractors and trailers and, luckily, the Keeper - although he hardly noticed me and just said to "jump in gal" as the other chaps loaded into one of the trailers. There was one other female, 2 labs and several other spaniels... and about 18 blokes! Who all knew each other.... Gunner and I both felt a little bit shy. Gunner maintained his "shyness" to the end of his time.... We worked with Fulletby shoot Tuesdays and Fridays every week for our first season - except for the weeks Gunner was off work through having to have his tail amputated - another story.
We picked up other shoots along the way and by 2011, our third season, we were a fixture on the local team and a number of other shoots besides, Gunner having earned his stripes in many different ways.
This photo encapsulates so much about that shoot.  High on the Lincolnshire wolds, the landscape around Fulletby is wonderfully hilly with views across to Lincoln Cathedral, the Wash and the East coast. It was a privelege to have access to land one couldn't normally walk across. This shot is taken in the 'middle' of the shoot. By January the keeper, Plum his name was, would say with glee: "We're goin thru' the middle today chaps".... rubbing his hands with glee because that's where the real sport was.
Shoots comprise a variety of 'covers' which vary from rough grasses, maize, mustard, tritikale, bracken and assorted shrubs to a variety of woodland areas. At the beginning of the season, the birds are 'driven' out of the lighter covers with the woodlands being saved for mid to late season.
So here we are, towards the end of the season in an area of bracken set between two large tracts of woodland. I could never remember the names of the different covers but I think this one was Goldy Top. Scent is pretty dead in bracken. Birds hide deep within and underneath it. A good dog will drive into and under it as well as the brambles and briars which grow alongside it. This particular tract lies on a sloping, boggy-bottomed hillside which rises up fairly steeply through mixed woodland......It was Gunner's favourite type of 'cover'. He just loved thrusting through the bracken, bounding across the boggy bits and snuffling round the woods. It was what his sturdy frame was built for.  Stamina not speed.
This 21st January 2011 was freezing cold and frosty, dry and sunny  - ideal scenting conditions.... the dog, as ever, worked his socks off!. The photo was taken around 1130 am.... we had just about thawed out by then........
Later in the day far away from Goldy Top, Gunner was thrusting through an ancient hawthorn hedge growing alongside a deep trench surrounded by thick brambles. Although I couldn't see him I could hear him working his way through the undergrowth.... Suddenly there was a heartrending screaming noise. I had no idea what was going on; I could see nothing; I thought maybe Gunner had hold of a hare - but hares don't make that noise..... slowly it dawned on me that it was something bigger... I grovelled on hands and knees through the undergrowth till I could see the back of the dog; it was attached to something at the front which was making all the noise.  Gunner was hanging on to a Muntjac deer and was determined to drag it out of the bushes. I could not believe it.
I told him to let go.  Relucantly he did! And we carried on with our proper work!!
Later I learned that the Guns had thought I had fallen into the dyke and was screaming for help!!!! Plum on the other hand said "You should hev thrown yersen in there after it gel - I'd have shared it with ye for dinner!!!"
It was a 130 bird day but by the end the bag was 146.
A truly memorable day.
As were so many out on the 'beat' with Gunner.....