getthegat

Partial mystery solved, came in this morning to see 2 foxes on top of the bales, though the orange eyes and position I saw them is wrong for a fox.

Eliminated a cat, as the position I saw it was not much more than a small clump of straw angled down, so not enough for a cat to sit on. I did see a barn owl on a pillion last night, about 50 yards from the straw stack, I'm thinking owls. A friend got a trail cam for Christmas and is going to set it up.

That was an interesting useful piece of research. All this hype about full body deeks, which I'm sure do work very well, but take up a lot of space and weight to carry, shows they are not absolutely necessary then. Cheers guys

Doh! Didn't think about cat, though possibly Soph would have sniffed it out. The stack is a long way from any houses and nothing there to eat, could be feral cat maybe

We have a couple of stacks of 1 ton straw bales, 5 high and 2 wide, where I walk the dog before going home. At the moment it is dark, 5.30 ish, so I use a torch. Nearly every evening we spot 1 to 4 foxes, eyes shining, usually about 100 yards away. One time though when shining the light to the top of the bales, I picked up two large eyes. There is no way it was a fox, too high up, wrong colour eyes. I was not close enough to see anything else and it suddenly disappeared. My thoughts were an owl. Then a couple of days ago I spotted another pair of eyes, half way up the stack, but smaller and orange yellow in colour this time. I would estimate the eyes to be about 2 to 3 inches apart, so not a rat and again not a fox. As I held the beam on it, the thing vanished. On closer inspection I could see a gap between the two stacks exactly at the height I'd seen the eyes, around 6 or 8 feet from the ground, presumably what ever it was had gone deeper into the bales. Surely it's too early for owl chicks, I thought maybe a hawk because of the eye colour, though in the dark and going into a bake stack, that doesn't make sense either? Any ideas?

Possibly been asked before, but can anyone offer first hand knowledge of using silosocks. Do they only work in breezy conditions? And therefore do they need to all face the same direction? What happens to them if they get wet? Are they as effective as other decoys ie shells? I'm just considering them to reduce weight.

My mum is in a home in Somerset

My mum is in a home, has been for a few years and she has dementia. She has falls and breaks bones and each time she has anaesthetic the dementia worsens and we lose more of her. I miss conversations with her, especially since dad passed, we used to have chats about our life in the tiny village in Somerset where we grew up (mum as well as me and my sister) the relatives and people we knew, the houses, fields, orchards, the little chapel and grave yard where our relatives rest....yeah I miss those chats. She has times when she sees and talks to, imaginary people; she talks about herself in the third tense, it's hard. She has moments when I think she knows me and my sister, then she's gone again. The home is lovely, it's clean and bright, she has all she needs and in her condition and at the age of 94, this is the best we can ask. We try and focus on the good times, passed and present, its a terrible state for a human being and some are no where near as well cared for as mum. Many many people are missing friends and relatives and yet they are sitting or lying right in front of them. A sad sad illness.

Hi, I'm trying to contact a gent called Chris that is the point of contact for Rochford wildfowlers, but Google has let me down. Anyone on here able to help please

Doesn't surprise me, I saw hundreds commuting from Essex, across the estuary towards Kent the other morning. Looking like a slim time ahead for my perms.

None around my area, but then it was spares all harvest. Had a dozen corvids on fresh seeded grass a couple of weeks ago, but they completely stopped coming after about an hour and 3/4s.

Never heard of that disease. Certainly very few birds about, but then apart from a few bushes with haw berries, there is nothing around for them to eat. Not found any dead birds and the last ones I shot we're in good condition.

When ever you manage to get out, I hope you have luck, whether it's blacks or woodies

Opened an interesting can of worms here me thinks. My late great uncle had an old single barrel 12 bore that we referred to as "a duck gun" and something had to be done to the breach area to tighten it up to fire modern cartridges ( modern in the early 70s) as I seem to remember something being said about it being a black powder gun. It had a 34" barrel. Don't know if any of the above info was true, but it had quite a range, though I personally struggled to hit much with it. I once saw my uncle drop a crow that paced out to over 100 paces, probably a realistic 70 or 80 yards. It was light and felt odd with that length barrel, but mainly because it was a single barrel I think. An over under would feel very different I'm sure, and with that said, "feel" and "fit" ( not necessarily professionally fitted) are probably what counts and what leads to confidence. My Franchi Affinity (27" barrel) is not an expensive gun, nor has it been fitted to me, but I have confidence with it and I guess it must fit me fairly well. I'd just like a second gun of a different bore, to do the same. My Franchi Raptor 20 is lovely, it's light and easy to handle, but I have varying degrees of success with it. I've had SxS's but generally I prefer looking down one barrel, rather than up between two, which is why I'm considering an over under 20. Perhaps I need to speak with my local-ish gun shop, and see if they may let me try before I buy. I'm hearing good things about the Turkish Kofs, especially for the price, so may wander over and put one to my shoulder 😁

Thanks guys. Really nice replies. Means a lot.