Sciurus

I have a 20b Hushpower Investarm, I was thinking of selling, if you are interested- I live in S Cumbria

@sam triple- great quality video 👍 I find the discussions on best bait for grey very interesting, it obviously must vary all over the country. I am just a few miles north of Mices patch, but even more damper/wetter. Like him, greys won’t touch wheat or maize. Quite often they seem to get bored with sunflower hearts and peanuts and just abandon a feeder after a week or two of feeding and go elsewhere. Most of the woodland here is ancient woodland with massive oaks and beeches, with lots of hazel and yews to keep them well fed till February or March. I don’t see many dreys either as there are so many holes and cracks in the old trees for them to live. Our local red squirrel group (which we are members) take out 4000-6000+ greys every year from the area, this means that the surviving greys are very wary and alert and generally do not struggle to find natural food in such a heavily wooded county. It’s a constant challenge (& that’s without the rain!) Like a number of areas in the Lakes, I had an outbreak of squirrel pox in one small colony of reds in a wood that I control. Luckily, we didn’t lose too many and I have had to spend a couple of mornings last month sitting in wait each time a new grey intruder was spotted. Although this can be a long cold and frustrating early morning wait, it does have its highlights as I watch the reds go about their daily business or should I say, the reds watch me sitting in wait? Each time I have taken out the new intruder but after a weeks respite, a new grey has appeared and will be dealt with shortly.

5 yesterday Total 2845

Windermere is now being twinned with Chamonix! 7f020e2f-8205-4db4-8b5a-dad645c9b385.mp4

One of the cars abandoned in our road- the local kids have a sense of humour!😇

@Mice!Windermere at 4 pm, it’s still snowing at 9pm. Roads are total chaos and gridlocked ,cars abandoned everywhere . I think you might be better having the day off👍

@Mice! I still think you are very brave sitting at a feeder in this weather. Dressing like an onion just keeps the cold locked in for me- blasted blood thinning tablets! On Tuesday, I was shooting high up near Grasmere and the jets were lower than usual following the valley and the shock waves were setting off the car alarms below (& deafening me! - along with my companion with a non moderated 12g) I’ll not do that again.😂 @ratchers. Will the Brampton Group give you some bait (& lend you a thermal?) even just for a weekend to help you? Thermals really are a game changer. I took out a new volunteer on tuesday, he had been shooting greys for a few years and didn’t see the need for a thermal. However once he realised he could spot a grey, quietly sitting in a tree a hundred metres away, he was convinced and I can see him regularly borrowing my “Group” thermal in the future. Thankfully he is fitter than me, so I am hoping he will take over this wood. Keep up the good work.👍Sciurus

Nine in the last two days Total 2607

@sam triple Very nice, enjoy it👍

This morning, I Scraped the windscreen and was at the permission just after 8 with a new volunteer. Me with.410 and him with 12 g. We parked up in the car park and saw our first squirrel- a red one, followed up with a second red in a nearby yew. A good start. Just like the last visit, no greys were spotted in the Hall grounds and campsite (very unusual) but it was still cold. Up the steep hill path (to get warm), we intended to walk the wood from top to bottom. The thermal soon spotted the first grey. After positioning ourselves either side of the oak, the 12 bore brought it down. Further down, I remarked that greys were often spotted in a small clump of firs. Sure enough we spotted a grey in the firs which I dropped with the .410. Further down another grey was spotted on the boundary in the lower wood about 100m away. We had to walk through an area of brash - crunch, crunch, crunch but the grey stayed put, we got as close as we dared and the 12g did the business (& I wished I had ear defenders!). 10.30 - off to Greggs for a celebratory bacon butty and welcome coffee. It had warmed up by then and time to take off a layer Then back to the permission to shoot a different wood that I rarely visit because it is halfway up another steep hill and completely overgrown and blocked with large wind blown trees. As usual, another grey is spotted on the far boundary, we had to do a wide detour to get closer. Bang my pal quickly spotted and dropped a grey on the ground, this shifted the original grey, which he shot at, but it carried on running. I tracked it through the canopy into the next tree and was about to shoot it, when it decided to give up and drop dead. Five for the morning, which is quite alot for the area. The volunteer did well and should be a great addition to the Society. After a quick bowl of soup at home, I went back to yesterdays wood. No police this time. It really is a lovely wood. The temperature was dropping quickly and the greys were staying put rather than running off and within 15 minutes, I had shot 3 with the .410. The wood owner and his gardener be pleased . A total of 8 and a great day out.

@Mice! You have to laugh- all my permissions are tourist attractions with 24hr public access and only received 1 visit in 6 years from police 3 days later . Yet I get a police van within 5 minutes of entering a private wood! Anyway good luck tomorrow- I’m off to RH with a new volunteer

Some days your best laid plans turn to squirrel poo !!! 😡 It all started last week, I was offered 12 acres of private woodland in the garden of a rather nice house. The wood was perfect, I could park outside, it wasn’t overgrown and there were even some level spots if I wanted to bring a chair- luxury! Walking round the wood, I spotted 4 or 5 greys, either zooming along the ground or very high up in the oak tops. The 12g would sort them out. Yesterday, I dumped bait at the base of various trees in preparation and this morning I was there around 8.30 am. As I went through the gate, I saw the first grey running about the canopy, unfortunately at the same time a couple of tourists came out of a public footpath from the wood opposite and decided to pass the time of day with me. After exchanging pleasantries and explaining that I was a Red Squirrel volunteer culling greys, I bid them farewell but it was too late, the grey had gone. 50 yards further on, I spotted another grey high up a beech. As I crept closer I spotted a police van moving slowly down the road. Thats odd I thought. Just then another grey appeared in the canopy- Game on! Unfortunately it was game off!!! The police van had returned and parked in front of my car- damn! Unloading the gun, I walked back to the two bobbies - “ You can guess why we are here” they said. Apparently a passing motorist had seen me enter the wood with a gun and driven straight to the police station in the village, half a mile away. The police station has been closed for years but occasionally passing police use it for having a brew and a chat. Just my luck that just as I entered the wood, there were two policemen in a van in the police yard ready to have a brew! To be fair, after checking my licence and photographing my number plate, they went on their way, presumably before their tea break finished. Long story short, the day was spoilt, there were lots of roe deer acting like greys in the bushes but I only saw one grey which I shot. A disappointing morning, which was made even worse. As I returned to the car, what should I see but a grey in the branch immediately above my car roof in the woodland to the house opposite.😡

Fifteen for me in the last 2 weeks Total 2592

Three more today Total 2511

4 this morning with the .410 Total 2508

Five for me today with the 12 bore. Total 2501

9 in the last two days Total 2481

@Mice! Normally, I wouldn’t risk life and limb unless the public would see the carcass, but being a red area, I daren’t risk any chance of cross contamination. This grey was exactly where you saw the red last time you were there. One thing I have noticed is greys on the ground no longer seem to run up the nearest tree but prefer to disappear into the undergrowth, never to be seen again. I am also seeing/shooting more red/greys next to water either lakeshore or above streams than in woodland.

@Mice!- I am glad Big Wood is productive again. 👍 I had two very different days as well. Today, out again just after 6.30- it was drizzling but nice and overcast. I arrived at the car park at the other side of the Lake. 2 bream fishermen were already setting up in the dark. I was going to walk a 2 mile section of foreshore, in summer the path is like the M6, but in Autumn early morning I wasn’t expecting to see many folk.I had a chat with one of the fishermen, he asked if I would give him any shot squirrels to feed his border terrier- Raw! I had only gone a hundred yards, saw a sentry grey,- bang. Grey down but not picked, the wood was unpenetratable due to the latest windfalls from last week’s storms. Another hundred yards, spotted a grey in a spindly oak with ivy- No - it’s two greys close together. The hushpower .410 has a very tight choke but I was definitely going to try and get 2 with one shot. Bang- one down but the other wobbled off and needed a second shot. I shot 3 more before turning round. On the way back, I had a shot at a stationary grey in a large oak, it disappeared, presumably untouched. I knew it hadn’t left the tree so kept circling it with the thermal but couldn’t spot it. After about 5 minutes, I gave up and started to walk off, when a massive dead grey fell out of the sky and hit my shoulder- I have no idea where it has been hiding. The next and final shot was satisfying, I was scanning another oak and saw nothing but I was suddenly showered with rain droplets, a grey was crossing overhead and was shot and down within seconds. Shot eight but could only pick up 5. The fisherman was happy- he had only caught a small roach! A lovely autumn day out.

I was away last week, staying with two lots of old friends. At both houses, their gardens were constantly invaded by tame greys, which is something I have never really seen before. In the Lakes, the greys are normally very nervous and disappear as soon as you spot them . This spurred me on to get some autumn control done when I got home. So yesterday morning at 6.30, the sky was crystal clear and full of stars- magical. I arrived at my destination by 7.15 and waited for it being light enough to distinguish red from grey. The upper and lower campsites were grey free, which is very unusual for the time of year. I then began the long slog uphill to the Red area. IMG_2121.mov The woods to the right also appeared to be squirrel free, it was pretty cold so I think they were staying in bed. From the top, I turned round and checked out a long coniferous wood across a stream. Soon a dark red was spotted frolicking in the undergrowth. A little further down, I spotted a grey on sentry duty in an oak, crossing a rickety bridge, I climbed up the steep bank, the grey was on the move. Bang, down it came, then it kicked its way down the slope. Sliding down the slope to pick it up, another red quietly ran across my path, quite unconcerned. I picked up the grey and slithered back up the bank to recross the rickety bridge. Once I got to the other side, I rescanned the wood,- blow me, the grey was still on sentry duty and I had shot a different grey! I retraced this torturous route but of course it had disappeared by the time I had climbed the other bank. On the way back, I saw a third red cross the stream and disappear into the woods in the second photo. I had been out for 3 hours and only seen 2 greys and 3 reds, so the control is having some effect.

10 in the last week or so - on the hazel or playing in the oaks. Total 2199

11 trapped in the last couple of weeks. Very quiet now Total 1907

On Tuesday, I spent 2 hours training a woodland ecology student to trap. He has only gone and caught 6 in 2 days on Campus with 3 traps! A great start for a new volunteer 👍 Meanwhile, I only caught 2😡 Total 1688

Four more from loan traps Total 1660

3 for me over the weekend, all from the same 2 loan traps. Had 3 more requests for loan traps over the weekend, it looks like the greys are finally leaving the woods and entering the gardens in the village. Very very late this year. Total 1638