ratchers

As a red squirrel guardian in north cumbria, our group weren't to thrilled by the thought of pine martens, I don't suppose a PM will bother whether its a red or grey squirrel it eats.

Nice to see some greys getting it, well done.

Done

Yes I saw some bullfinches amongst all the tits and sparrows. Was back to this garden early hoping to catch another one of the greys and after an hour shot a kit but nothing else turned up in the next two hours so will have to return again.

I got a call the other day from an old permission where I had cleared the greys out, the gentleman said a family of greys was back in his garden and raiding the bird feeder, I had a free couple of hours yesterday so went and sat in his garden waiting, even though the bird feeder was an anti squirrel one I could see why they visited, gosh the birds were messy eaters, bits of fat ball and peanuts flying everywhere, the ground was littered with debris and it hasn't taken long for the wildlife to notice as there was a big fat jay helping itsself, I struck lucky and one of the greys turned up, it took a few moments to get the right angle for a clean head shot and the jsb did its job, only one down out of four so will keep returning. As a note he said its been six years since he last saw a red in his garden.

Out again this morning and shot three in the first hour, had to wait another two hours for the next one which was very fidgety and took ages to settle before he had his last peanut. It was very nosiy with crows first thing, maybe they were interested in the dead greys but none were brave enough to come down from the tree tops although a jay came down and found a stray nut.

I managed to get out between the showers do some grey squirrel control. At the syndicates wood where I have been shooting recently, got there not not quite as early as I would have liked at 8, the box had been emptied again so topped it up and waited, noticed the ground had been dug up in lots of places from squirrels, 45 minutes later the first customer rolled up and as Mice would say psst whack number one down, another hour passed by with only a jay on the box before number two got a jsb in the head and that was it in three hours before the rain came back.

Out this morning and the feeder had once again been emptied in a week since my last visit, after an hour number one turned up for his last breakfast and followed up an hour later by the next grey to eat his last peanut, I did see three others away in the trees but three hours in the freezing cold wind saw me off, next week!

Out again between the showers and scored two in three hours but saw seven in total so some to go at still.

I didn't explain that well, it had been emptied in a week from one visit to the next.

Was out early yesterday morning after topping the flip top the day before which was empty again, got there and there was a grey on the box, whether he heard or saw me but when I looked up from getting the gun out of the slip he was gone. Didn't have long to wait as a youngster popped up and was squirrel number 1. A wait ensued until I heard a rustling and looked to my right and about one yard away through the camo net was grey, no chance to do anything just hoped he was on his wait to the box, whether it did or not who knows as it was another wait for squirrel 2 to eat his last peanut. Now the next grey was not happy and flitted about until he stopped on is way down giving me a shot where typically hung on till he dropped, classic head shot. Squirrel number 4 was definately not happy looking at his fallen comrades and just would not settle, took him about five to ten minutes to eventually take a peanut where another head shot got him, so four greys in four hours sort of all equally spaced out, all young, not like the one last week which was a mature boar.

I might try for a FAC air gun now as before they weren't even processing applications.

Thanks for that Mice, looks good although it might be a bit interesting in a strong wind!

That sounds great, enjoy. Don't think I've ever seen a picture of your brolly in action?!

Was back out on ambush after topping the feeder up last friday when it was empty, had to go in the afternoon, not my favourite time to shoot as I always find it quiet and so it proved as it took three hours for a customer to turn up, heard the lid bang down and when I looked there was a grey munching a peanut, waited for it to take another and it didn't, it got twitchy looking around and then it started raining, come on you squirrel take a nut and settle and as though it could read my thoughts did exactly that, a quick head shot later it was down and dead, then the heavens really opened up and I was quite wet in no time so packed up and headed home.