yes the season for pheasant starts on Oct 1st. but the 12th aug , called The Glorious 12th starts the hunting season for other stuff. DD xxxI saw over a dozen pheasants all together standing around on the edge of a field/road verge yesterday. Is this the time of year when gamekeepers release bred birds for the shooting season maybe?
It’s neither, it’s often a business meeting or a way to sway influence, much like a round of golf on a posh course. Everyone, many of them non-shooters, get to casually bang away and bag a bird or two.That's not sport, or a challenge.


They are very young, weak and sickly and pumped full of anti biotics. If they survive the shoot and get a couple of years in the wild they are an altogether different proposition. They used to give me a good run for my money when I used to hunt them with my hawks, DD xxxThese were all standing round looking dumb-struck, not surprising if all they have been used to are closed cages/runs.
No fun in shooting them, they'll fly straight, slow and low. That's not sport, or a challenge. The very point Chris and I were discussing at the Summer Moot.
Wild strawberry leaves for me today, for tisanes in winter. We have a new flush of growth after a single day of drizzle on Thursday, which was very, very welcome, but still far too little. (Also gathered raspberries, sage, rosemary, tulsi, basil, cucumber, tomatoes, squash, blettes, mint, chillies, and calendula, but those were grown by me, not foraged!)
Son1 and girlfriend now have ducks....I said at the time, "What are you going to do with over a thousand duck eggs a year ?"Oh, your making me look lightweight. Dads already baffled at my jarrage.
(But how could I resist a dozen eggs at £2.25? I have lots of pickled eggs now)
