RETURNING from our favourite walk along the path from Hampton Loade to the Severn Valley Nature Park we were astonished, delighted, and mystified to see a field packed with hundreds of mallard ducks.

Half a mile on, four or five Land Rover type vehicles passed us going along a muddy track beside the river and 10 minutes later we realised the appalling truth as the peace and tranquility was shattered by a fusillade of gun shots.

People with twisted minds had somehow attracted those wonderful wild birds into the field so they could shoot them. It must have been an absolute massacre as these awful people killed or maimed dozens at a time.

What pleasure could they gain from that?

Peter Ricketts

Kidderminster