squirrel control

[ratchers]

Well out at last after a long spell of very wet and windy weather and what a glorious day with warming sun, the farmer wasn't too happy about the state of his land or sheep and was hoping this was the start of better weather in the run up to his lambing time. Had a natter for a while and then went in to the wood, upset the screeching jays and nearly got a shot at a magpie but the pine branches were in the way, a perennial problem in this wood, its quite a small wood and I arrived at the place where I normally see greys, there was some fresh holes in the ground where they had been looking for buried stuff so I got next to a big tree to wait, after about an hour I spotted movement in the treetops and tracked one and then a second, they were right at the top in the sunshine in cover and I had to wait another twenty minutes before they moved, after several trees one stopped in the open and as the grey looked small so I opted for a body shot, it crashed down through the branches and lay stone dead at the tree base, I quickly got the thermal out to find the second and could just see it a V near the top, took the shot but hit a twig hiding it, had a look through the thermal again and it was still there but more in the open this time and another body shot sent it crashing to the ground, a mating pair so a good result.

[Mice!]

5 hours ago, ratchers said:

mating pair so a good result.

Well done fella 👍

I've had cameras out over the last week on different feeders, shift change is coming and I've got plenty to go at, plus about 1500 images to go through,  although 900+ are probably pheasant 🤬

[villaman]

On 12/02/2024 at 20:33, Mice! said:

Well done 👏 

You did well getting 4 if there's only wheat to draw them in, I don't care what anyone says wheat and maize just don't do it if there's other options. 

Glad you got out though 👍

Wheat has always worked for me  . Normally shoot at least ten in couple of hours each time I go 

[Mice!]

19 minutes ago, villaman said:

Wheat has always worked for me  . Normally shoot at least ten in couple of hours each time I go 

People say this, but I know if I put wheat out it will just sit there, I've done it in feeders when I know I can't get out for a while and it just sits untouched.

It would save us a fortune in feed costs.

[ratchers]

10 hours ago, villaman said:

Wheat has always worked for me  . Normally shoot at least ten in couple of hours each time I go 

Wheat has worked for me too but only when there is no other food available whereas peanuts always work, wheat is a lot cheaper especially if the shooting sydicates gives it to you!

[sam triple]

2hours sat in the hide , filled 6 feeders  Saturday all empty Sunday 

[villaman]

On 09/03/2024 at 23:15, Mice! said:

People say this, but I know if I put wheat out it will just sit there, I've done it in feeders when I know I can't get out for a while and it just sits untouched.

It would save us a fortune in feed costs.

Well I shoot around 250 from the  1st November  31 march  all with wheat in 9 different feeders 

5 hours ago, sam triple said:

2hours sat in the hide , filled 6 feeders  Saturday all empty Sunday 

These scopes are a game changer 👍🏻

On 10/03/2024 at 09:05, ratchers said:

Wheat has worked for me too but only when there is no other food available whereas peanuts always work, wheat is a lot cheaper especially if the shooting sydicates gives it to you!

Yes when there is plenty of natural food about then wheat is second best but come mid November they are on it 

[Sciurus]

@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.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mice!]

18 hours ago, sam triple said:

2hours sat in the hide , filled 6 feeders  Saturday all empty Sunday 

Well done mate, there not half twitchy though when there scratting around for bits.

13 hours ago, villaman said:

Well I shoot around 250 from the  1st November  31 march  all with wheat in 9 different feeders 

@Sciurus has just beaten me to it, it's obviously regional,  but also your only shooting November to March, which means there's a years worth of squirrels to go at, I don't doubt it helps the song birds where you are in spring, but there's no chance we could just leave the greys to there own ideas till November,  there wouldn't be any reds left, we're out every month in some seriously testing terrain,  if the feed isn't better than what they can find then you won't guarantee that they'll come for it, which means you'll have a lot of blank sessions which is waisted time.

I follow a group on FB from Herefordshire and the fella there only uses wheat,  some of his feeders hold 80kg, I've seen pictures of them being filled from a JCB bucket 😳😳 nice woodland where he is out 7 days a week on lots of feeders, but he's shooting very few at the moment because there not on the feed 😳

When your ground looks like this, then pulling in squirrels takes high energy feed.

I shot 5 yesterday,  2 & 3 all at feeders, the picture above has an open feeder and a closed one, even the birds don't really eat the wheat, they chuck it around looking for the good bits, which the pheasant do eat ( I've got 100s of images of them doing just this 🙈)

I even found one in a tree, which looked like someone's dog had had it.

This feeder had peanuts and sunflower seeds in it.

I tried to restrict the feed but it wasn't flowing and just sat getting damp because everything is just saturated at the moment, but I opened up the lid again, made the back more sloped and its been emptied in days, so that will get a camera up this week for shooting next Wednesday. 

[sam triple]

I have shot this perm all year round in the past but last year / this year , the keeper wanted  me to stop due to pheasant poults in the woodland pen ,which given the difficulty of holding the birds this past season was probably a wise decision , last year the woodland won a local farmers award for the number of bird species now inhabiting it last count was 54 , where 3 years ago it was devoid most  of songbirds , as for food my feeders hold the same as the pheasant feeders , which is what ever comes out of the farmers driers mainly sunflower seeds , wheat , barley , cut maize and various other seeds , the wood itself is mainly beech , oak , yew and ash , which unfortunately we will loose due to ash die back 

[Mice!]

1 hour ago, sam triple said:

last year the woodland won a local farmers award for the number of bird species now inhabiting it last count was 54 , where 3 years ago it was devoid most  of songbirds

That's a brilliant result and shows the benefits of controlling the greys.

I'll still never understand why some keepers take this approach though, you going in quietly and shooting a feeder isn't likely to cause much disruption unless you have a dog running around,  so long as your away from the pens.

[sam triple]

1 hour ago, Mice! said:

That's a brilliant result and shows the benefits of controlling the greys.

I'll still never understand why some keepers take this approach though, you going in quietly and shooting a feeder isn't likely to cause much disruption unless you have a dog running around,  so long as your away from the pens.

Never have before but as soon as the rains started last October the birds went ,only to really return during the cold snap in January, as the commercial shoot next door who put down 10000 plus birds were having difficulty keeping theirs and the same being reported all over the country he took the decision to leave the woods alone with no disturbance to them , 

the keeper is a mate and we built his boss the release pen , we do all the maintenance, in return I get 5 or 6 days on the pheasants , pigeon , crow and squirrel shooting he let me put up 3 static hides plus I picked up 200 kg of feed for nothing which I also use on another perm , so I can’t really moan 

Yes me being of it for so long has created a void for more to fill , which means I’ll have to up my game abit 

[Mice!]

3 hours ago, sam triple said:

the keeper is a mate and we built his boss the release pen , we do all the maintenance, in return I get 5 or 6 days on the pheasants , pigeon , crow and squirrel shooting he let me put up 3 static hides plus I picked up 200 kg of feed for nothing which I also use on another perm , so I can’t really moan 

Sounds like a good deal 👌 

[villaman]

11 hours ago, Mice! said:

Well done mate, there not half twitchy though when there scratting around for bits.

@Sciurus has just beaten me to it, it's obviously regional,  but also your only shooting November to March, which means there's a years worth of squirrels to go at, I don't doubt it helps the song birds where you are in spring, but there's no chance we could just leave the greys to there own ideas till November,  there wouldn't be any reds left, we're out every month in some seriously testing terrain,  if the feed isn't better than what they can find then you won't guarantee that they'll come for it, which means you'll have a lot of blank sessions which is waisted time.

I follow a group on FB from Herefordshire and the fella there only uses wheat,  some of his feeders hold 80kg, I've seen pictures of them being filled from a JCB bucket 😳😳 nice woodland where he is out 7 days a week on lots of feeders, but he's shooting very few at the moment because there not on the feed 😳

When your ground looks like this, then pulling in squirrels takes high energy feed.

I shot 5 yesterday,  2 & 3 all at feeders, the picture above has an open feeder and a closed one, even the birds don't really eat the wheat, they chuck it around looking for the good bits, which the pheasant do eat ( I've got 100s of images of them doing just this 🙈)

I even found one in a tree, which looked like someone's dog had had it.

This feeder had peanuts and sunflower seeds in it.

I tried to restrict the feed but it wasn't flowing and just sat getting damp because everything is just saturated at the moment, but I opened up the lid again, made the back more sloped and its been emptied in days, so that will get a camera up this week for shooting next Wednesday. 

I can only shoot between November & March because it a caravan & camping park with 300 acres of woodland which is open to the caravan / camping public in those times 

[ratchers]

After a hard frost went out to the syndicates wood where I put a flip top feeder up after the pheasant feeders were taken in, the feeders been up about a month and its taken the greys this long to find it but after checking it yesterday and finding it was empty, I topped it up and was back this morning.

Got there about nine and followed a grey on the way to the feeder, snuck up and there was one on the box, a head shot and the first one down. 15 minutes later another was on the feeder which went the same way as the first, next one came from my right and was five yards away but it saw me and I must have looked scary cos he legged it, then one came from behind me and he followed his mate and legged it as well, I haven't seen this many squirrels in ages, another one was on the box but he saw me move the gun and disapeared, it wasn't long before the same on or another found the lure of peanuts too much and paid the price, in one hour shot three and saw another four and then nothing. Some left for next time though.

[Mice!]

49 minutes ago, ratchers said:

one hour shot three and saw another four and then nothing. Some left for next time though.

Good shooting,  sounds like you need another trip out soon 👍

[sam triple]

Back up the woods yesterday after the rain had stopped , on the same feeder they kept coming that 20 in 3 short visits , should have been more , 52 this year over 2 perms 

 

Edited March 18 by sam triple

[amateur]

3 hours ago, sam triple said:

Back up the woods yesterday after the rain had stopped , on the same feeder they kept coming that 20 in 3 short visits , should have been more , 52 this year over 2 perms 

 

Can you please add these to the squirrel score in "Other Pest Control"

[ratchers]

Back out this morning to the sydicates wood where I was the other day, sneaked up to the box and there were two greys on it, one waiting for its turn, composed myself and missed the shot, anyway one of the ones must have been hungry cos I heard the lid bang and there was one on the box again, didn't miss this time though. Nothing more in an hour and half so moved to my other feeder in this wood which until recently wasn't getting any attention but was emptied completely last week and on approaching could see that it was only half full since topping it up. Sat for another hour and a half but nothing, they are obviously about just need to get the  timing right.

[Mice!]

13 minutes ago, ratchers said:

Sat for another hour and a half but nothing, they are obviously about just need to get the  timing right.

I'm out tomorrow but going blind ish, the woods I want to be in the stalkers are in.

But one of these woods is probably less than a mile from the new spot I'm shooting,  the new place had squirrels on camera till dark, but not busy early, while the other wood the squirrels just stopped coming at 4pm dead.

Cameras definitely help.

[old man]

Back out today to a new but previously shot location. A tree rat approached me to within 10 feet when I was standing out in the open on my first arrival? It or a mate did appear later but I had decided not to shoot today as hopefully feeder use when found will result on their dribbled urine tracks bringing others in the long term. I will see?

[Newkid]

A few from the estate I trap moles on 

[Mice!]

Two very different days, I was out yesterday later than normal, I waited for the rain to ease off then walked a wood I've not looked at for a while, and saw nothing other than birds 😁

It was a bit wet and muddy in the wood. 

But nice higher up, new nettles poking through, a lot of this will be unreachable soon.

Then off to another wood for a few hours, only saw two, only one came to the feeder. 

Big male,  look at his tail..

There was a Buzzard hanging around so I left him lay out, when I came back a few hours later the tail had been stripped. 

Back for lunch and checked another quiet spot on the way, this feeder was empty after no activity for a few months so topped up and I'll look at it next week. 

Then back for an afternoon session at the second wood again, I saw three here and took another two.

All three males. 

I was waiting for it to get dark so I could check two bigger woods as the stalkers were out in them yesterday, 18:45 and it was still light enough to look around, first day of spring and you could feel the warmth. 

Checked and topped up the next two feeders and it was 9pm when I left the woods, long day.

Up this morning and at the wood by 06:15, in and waiting by 06:30, first grey was seen at 07:00 and I thought here we go, it never even looked at the feeder, just went straight past 😳

I sat for 2.5hrs watching Nuthatch's, Blue tits, Great tits, Willow tits, Coal tits,Tree Creepers, Woodpeckers, a Pheasant playing peek a boo, Robin's, Jays, Pigeons but no squirrels came to the feeder.

Compared with yesterday it was very cold, and a fine mist started around 830 ish.

I did spot two squirrels further away but they were staying where they were.

I went for a look at 9am, I needed to stand up and took a large pregnant female, then spotted a hot drey where the second had been up the hill, but it was staying tucked up, so the day wasn't a right off but I packed up and headed for the second wood.

Only to find a mini bus with volunteers in the wood so I just turned around and headed for home, if the rain hadn't have been picking up I might have chanced somewhere else but I got the feeling it was just one of those days.

Few, I thought I'd put this on earlier but it's still here.

[ratchers]

As I was out last time in the morning and saw nothing even though the feed level had gone down I decided to give the afternoon a go although its not my favourite time of the day for shooting, I find it very quiet. So yesterday afternoon I was waiting patiently in ambush and did have some success with two shot in two hours so a change is as good as a rest!

[old man]

Another disappointing outing here, saw 1 fleetingly on way into location which just disappeared.

Then saw 1 about 2 hours later acting like a lib dim MP on steroids casing a lone voter finally ending up after 10 minutes hidden in a Laurel bush?