THE change in the weather to true autumn conditions may not suit a recent visitor to our area. Our friend John was surprised to see a parakeet feeding in his maize field, a splash of bright green feathers against the blackening stalks of the main crop.

He is considering changing his game card to include the parakeet alongside the pheasants, partridges and hares on its cover, and as we also have a few escaped budgerigars, I suggested he might include them as well.

A news item this morning warned that the failure of much of the rape crop to germinate might lead to mass bird starvation next spring. We redrilled some of our crop as the dry weather in the early autumn certainly inhibited the rape's growth, but recent downpours have brought the crop on. We don't exactly encourage birds to feed on the crop in any case. The main diners are pigeons, and we are never short of enthusiastic guns wanting to practise their pigeon decoy skills in our rape fields in the spring. But nature has compensated for a possible spring shortage by a bounteous autumn. For the first time, the sorghum that we plant for game cover has seeded, and there are still masses of berries in our hedgerows. The maize is also attracting deer into our fields, and any walk through the game-cover crops sets flocks of birds off up into the sky.

Today, John and his friends were shooting a number of woods that we have around the farm. Unbeknownst to him, one of the beaters with the party must have brought a hunting horn along. As Holly, our spaniel, gets so upset if John goes out without her, he decided to take her, as well as our Labrador Meg, out for the day. Meg, totally out of character, but probably because of the competition that Holly had inspired in her, set off across the field after a hare. "She never does that," John said, "I couldn't believe it. She disgraced herself." Which only goes to show what a short memory men have for good deeds. Meg is a wonderful dog, and time after time excels. One mistake and she is demoted to the bottom of the class. Poor Meggy.

One of the woods being shot is particularly overgrown. Rather than risking the dog's eyes being scratched (although Holly is better suited for brambly conditions than Meg), John stood at the edge of the wood when the drive started. He had both dogs on separate leads, attached to drive-in stakes in the ground, as an excited dog might pull you over. Not a good idea with a loaded gun.

"Suddenly a hunting horn sounded," John said, "And, within ten seconds, a big old dog fox shot out of the wood going hell for leather across the fields. The dogs went mad. They just about tied me up in a knot, running in different directions and with only being able to go the length of their leads. That fox had heard a horn before. He wasn't hanging around. He was off. Luckily I hadn't had time to get any cartridges into my gun, as the dogs almost had me off balance. So the fox got away."

He must be a very wise old fox. Heard a few hunting horns in his time. He could, if the anti-hunting legislation goes through, only be able to recall the sound of that horn as a distant memory. And as long as John takes both dogs out with him, he's safe from him as well.

Updated: 11:33 Wednesday, December 03, 2003