Ballymac

Good stuff. Nice bit of rough ground. There seems to be plenty of woodcock around.

Thanks for replies guys. I was away from computer so didnt get back. What I have been told by pest controller, which ties in with Dekers, is it is only a small number of females left in nest. They are probably nesting in the cavity as we cannot find the nest anywhere, although there is very limited access in the area that we think the nest is located. Will get some of those sprays or ant powder and see what we can do. The only council that do deal with wasps apparently is the Belfast City council. So everyone outside of that area has to pay private companies (applies to N.Ireland only )

Hi Guys, MIL has been stung by wasp in middle of night, so I was asked to find the nest. Its in her loft of her bungalow and they are getting in under the guttering. I rang local council and was told that they do not deal with this type of pest. Passed on to environmental services and they told me to go to yellow pages. Rentokill have gave me a price through their on line service, and have tried a number of local companies with no success. Anyhow just thought I would ask for your experience on this. MIL is old aged pensioner. a long time now and the money that the companies are asking is what it is. But I was thinking that as an old aged pensioner living alone etc should there not be a better service available from the council. Its a bill she could do without, aren't they all, what's your thoughts on the council side of this. I am not getting at the price being charged by companies for their service.

Well its a good bag for over here. I was gonna ask where you shot them, but not specifically, the County or general area would have done. Just idle curiousity. N Ireland is a small place and there are those who would try to get in on the act. I 'm sure that the question was asked with no secondary motive behind it. Haven't seen 300 pigeons in the one place in a long time. Now crows, that's a different matter.

Been off the scene for a while and havent managed much shooting, but hope to get out tomorrow. Friends have told me of their days out in different parts of N Ireland and there are a few about. This colder weather and the full moon should bring a few more in. Hope to be out in the coming days so will let you know.

Suppose it depend on what you have plenty of, on the ground. They can be a pest and when there are 00's they do lots of damage and need sorting. In Ireland hares are mostly taboo when it comes to shooting. As the old country saying goes 'that's another man's sport'. I personally would n't shoot a hare as there are not massive numbers in my area. I love to see them in the fields and enjoy watching the huntsmen and their hounds. So I leave any hares for these country men and they leave the other animals for other country men.

Good bag. That's nearly as many woodcock as I have seen all season Hopefully that snow has pushed them down my way.

Lovely looking bird

Hands full there with that pup. Like the springer. No snow this way bit disappointed.

Thanks, I like them, mum in background her two daughters to the fore

Along day to only get two duck but better than sitting about. We started at 9.30am and hunted an area that produced two woodcock that were not even shot at as they were out of range. We left at 11 or so to go to another area and one lad got a rabbit. Birds were not about and we quit at 12.15pm. I decided to go on to another area on my own, a quick cuppa and choccy bar for energy and continued til 2pm. I had got the two duck and was hunting the ditch when my phone rang and yes you guessed it 4 mallrd flew off. I thanked my daughter and came home. Great day

Entered the modern world and downloaded chrome, so a combination of deleting old emails running a virus check and chrome have resulted in me having an account that now works. Thanks

yea my facebook account was hacked or it was attempted, someone in Germany. So may have been some issues with hotmail. I have done the virus scan but did not resolve the problem.

well done/ Woodcock not that plentiful around this way

I had tried to upload a few photos but only one made it. Dogs got a few days out over the holiday time. Yeah a tote bag keeps most of the dirt off the back of the seat.

Thanks will try that

Hi guys can any one advise me as to why my hotmail account is freezing. I have to hit the refresh button to get it to open a message and if I move from one folder to another, infact when I go to do anything it freezes. No other program on my computer is affected. Any thoughts

a walk on xmas eve

Been out a few times over December and a poor showing of woodcock hope you guys had more sightings than me.

That was the height this guy said to me that they are all to be found around 150 ft above sea level, I though t it a bit strange. I was out on low lying ground week before last and raised only one so hope to get out for an hour during week to see if there are any more about.

I was told that they are on higher ground at the moment, can those that are flushing plenty confirm or deny. I didnt get out myself at the weekend but another guy told me they only flushed 5 , which was near the lough so low lying ground.

was out the last two saturdays and we were dogging a bit of ground 2 saturdays ago, that we could not shoot (not safe)but thought some of our pheasants where, and we flushed six woodcock. We proceeded to our own ground to hunt and flushed one. Last Saturday we only flushed one woodcock. Full moon in so hopefully more about shortly.

let me know how you get on, what price etc.We are considering a little project for next year. Considering a few things such as wooden or metal frames for barrels or to go with smaller sealed tubs and hang from trees etc. There are a few options on done deal or gumtree. Spring feeders seem to be the preferred choice.

Out on Saturday and got one first one I seen, mate seen another one but no shot.. Going to do a bog on Saturday that hopefully holds a few so looking forward to that.

Haven't been on for a while so sorry if this has been covered. Over the last few weeks a friend had asked me to get a few pound of sloes for the purpose of making a winter drink. Anyhow I told him no problem I have 3 large sloe bearing bushes at the top of my garden and a hedgerow in the adjoining field full of them. I have checked recently and noticed that not only are there little to none on the bushes the wild damons, the blackcurrents are all in a poor state. Question is this, has it been a bad summer for them or is it down to the lack of bees. Someone also said that there are not as many conkers (chestnuts) about. Anyone notice the same thing or is it only in my area.