Rachel Clarke, 57 years from Great Plumstead, Norfolk, is an avid Wildfowl Shooting employee, working for the Cator estate at Woodbastwick, Norfolk. Rachel and her husband take part in daily shoots that take place over the shooting season and as a beater dresses up in wax leggings and jackets to protect them from the elements. Earning £45 a day, she’d accompany the dogs with a flag consisting of a bag on a stick to make noise to disturb and ‘knock up’ the birds, sending them into the air for shooters to aim at.
I asked Rachel about the number of wildfowl they would end up with at the end of the day.
Dogs Diesel and Tia both keep to heel with Rachel, going into the bracken and then chasing birds and pushing them out into the open. Once birds have been shot, the dogs dutifully retrieve the dead wildfowl and return it to their owners.
I asked Rachel what happens to the birds at the end of the shoot.
Shooting is an expensive sport for very good reason; it costs on average £250 to get a bird to the point of shooting when taking into account breeding them, justifying the £500 cost to join a shoot for the day. Rachel told me that her favourite part of shooting was the camaraderie and the stories that are told on the day.
One particular story was of the times shooters maimed birds instead of killing them meant she had to quickly wring the necks of birds and pretend they had been hit, congratulating the shooters warmly on their excellent shot. I asked Rachel about the sustainability and future of shooting and she replied, “while men have more money than sense, wildfowl shoots will continue!”