Duck and thrive

Last week I received a text from my mother to tell me she’d seen 11 ‘very big ducklings’ on a pond I built some years ago. It was the best news I’d received in days. Every spring up until now, the routine is the same. A duck is spotted with a clutch of little balls of fluff and over the next few weeks, the numbers dwindle as predators pick them off until only the childless mother remains.

In many ways, the reason it saddens me so much is that I feel I should be there, tackling the marauding corvids, but due to the Shooting Times office being 369 miles south, it isn’t possible.

While wandering around the kitchen, thinking about the news, I remembered that last year, I shot eight mallard in total on that pond. In other words, a habitat I created for shooting has resulted in a net increase in ducks over the past year.

I am not alone. Almost every Shooting Times contributor works tirelessly to make the world around them a better place for wildlife. In fact, I’m not sure how you’d ever work it out but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring and suggest that on average a Shooting Times reader carries out more conservation work each year than readers of any other British publication.

Patrick Galbraith, Editor

Follow Patrick on Twitter @paddycgalbraith