Mike Swan

Mike Swan

Mike has been a member of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust advisory team since 1982, having previously completed a PhD in Botany. He runs his own small shoot in Dorset, as well as enjoying wildfowling, fishing and woodland stalking. He runs the GWCT’s tertiary education programme, and provides advice on game management and conservation to gamekeepers, shoot managers, farmers and conservation organisations across southern England, the southwest, and throughout Wales.

duck breeds

  • January 15, 2020

Identifying different duck breeds The question “What’s that one then?” should never be heard from the person who shot a bird, so knowing what the odd unusual duck looks and…

Greylag geese

  • October 23, 2019

Have you noticed how often ducks coming to a flight pond come in twos, especially later in the season? It’s no accident — by this time of year the breeding…

coypu

  • August 21, 2019

At up to 3ft long including the tail, and weighing perhaps 9kg, the coypu is fairly impressive for a rodent. It is not quite a capybara or a beaver, but…

Shooting a Beretta

  • April 19, 2018

David Jamieson, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, wants a fee increase so police are not “subsidising gun ownership” I am pleased to see that BASC’s Bill Harriman is suitably…

woodcock

  • November 16, 2017

Sportsmen and women are being asked to refrain from shooting woodcock until 1st December, in new guidelines issued by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). This is due to…

Larsen trap

  • March 22, 2017

Of all the pest control activities that we carry out, Larsen trapping for crows and magpies is perhaps the most visible. It therefore follows that the better we do it,…

feeding tips

  • August 18, 2016

With the pheasant release process well under way on most shoots, careful feeding of our growing poults is a main task for the majority of low-ground keepers as July turns into August. As the birds begin…

Greylag

  • August 17, 2016

It was a still, bright October evening at Llanrhidian in West Wales, and Tom and I had decided to try for a shot at evening flight. Being in the outer reaches of the Bristol…

release pens

  • July 27, 2016

Time and again as I wander into the depths of a wood in my role as a Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) game adviser, I come across an embarrassment. The combination of tatty fencing, battered…