Legal shooting time is half an hour before sunrise but the self-employed builder has been in the swamp much longer.

Tramping through the shallows, he’s unfurled painted decoys designed to lure mobs in.

Made from moulded plastic and weighted to sit a certain way on the water, they do a startlingly realistic impression of a live duck.

Get Rundell talking and the conversation can eddy for minutes around the nuances of decoy patterns.

They can be arranged in a J or a V, designed to funnel birds into a kill zone, giving the hunter a clear shot.

Rundell scouted the area the previous day, setting up here to be under the flight path of birds shifting from one swamp to another.

The boat is dragged between the reeds in an attempt to evade the ducks’ keen eyesight.

But the wind is up and the mobs are moving fast.

Most are out of range.

Bird watching

For long stretches, the hunt devolves into bird watching.

Large mobs of pelicans lope past. Black swans with necks outstretched. Cormorants.

Tethered to the boat, the gun dog shivers half from the cold and half from anticipation. A Brittany, this is what he was bred for.

You get the feeling Rundell doesn’t really mind the lull.

The shotgun rests between his knees, hands clasped around the barrel.

Now would be the perfect time to gnaw on some duck jerky. But it’s early in the season and he hasn’t made any yet.