Ready for action, the Forest of Bowland behind

The Olympics were truly ‘absolutely fabulous’ and ‘happy and glorious’. And what better way to maintain the high spirits of the past fortnight than a great day of walked up grouse. I have to confess that I was deeply sceptical about London 2012 before it started and was completely wrong. It was a great celebration of being British. And how convenient for it to end just as the grouse shooting started. It should allow us to maintain  our Olympic high for many more weeks.

Sadly, my day’s shooting was not at Croick where the prospects for any grouse shooting were eliminated by continuous rain throughout the breeding season. We shall go out and have a look in the next few weeks but expectations are very low.

Fortunately things are better further south and I was very lucky to receive an invitation to a compact, well-managed moor in Lancashire for the opening day of the season. The birds were very plentiful with large coveys of well-developed birds. We shot a very respectable 16.5 brace between five guns on a perfect day for shooting; dry, a good breeze and no rain.

The first birds of the season

The birds were in great shape and it was pleasing to to see that half the birds we shot were this year’s. And there were more than enough left for more sport later in the season for some other lucky people. Very many thanks to my generous hosts.