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squirrel control


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Maybe two mornings this week but otherwise all rain forecast.  I have to have a look at a couple of new sites.  I know where I would like to be, but we have so many footpaths running across the ground and with this lockdown folks are on them all day. Both locations are adjacent to footpaths so not easy set ups. Plus it is VERY wet everywhere.

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48 minutes ago, ratchers said:

Are your feeding boxes floating yet, heck its wet🦾

😂

I have only got 2 feeders out and even then have just not fancied the long uphill trudge in mud to check them.

Serves me right for boasting last week that there was no mud up here!

I haven’t been entirely idle - I have spent a couple of days in the garage making rainproof feeders out of plastic soil pipes, ready for when the acorns run out.

Hopefully, I can get out on Friday and take the gun for a walk.

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13 hours ago, Sciurus said:

😂

I have only got 2 feeders out and even then have just not fancied the long uphill trudge in mud to check them.

Serves me right for boasting last week that there was no mud up here!

I haven’t been entirely idle - I have spent a couple of days in the garage making rainproof feeders out of plastic soil pipes, ready for when the acorns run out.

Hopefully, I can get out on Friday and take the gun for a walk.

I used to use square downpipe successfully except for them eventually being gnawed at the corners and needing wrapping in mesh. I will try round pipe next time to hopefully remove some points of damage? 

Still seeking new perms. My garden greys now using the bird table for action, the latest yesterday waited till she was gnawing a nut and helped himself. He was finished before she was, not sure she noticed him. 

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Yes, I am running out of supplies. Cannot keep shooting them I suppose.  Everywhere here is a morasse walking anywhere is a trial. One slight pleasure of not having three days bird shooting this week becaue they were cancelled with the covid lockdown is the weather we are having.   I got fed up with the chewing of 'soft' materials that is why I turned to steel.  Clear morning tomorrow and maybe Friday so might get out and have a look.   My stuffed tree rat decoy has not had an outing yet so might just try that although I did make it for a specific location on a 200yrd long feed ride but again that is 70 miles away and impossible with the restrictions.

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Hiya tagether I have used round down pipe and it works really well but the tree rats did chew the bottoms so I put some plasterers corner wire on them and that solved that ,it fits well round house down pipe you know the sort they use for uprights sorry to run on a bit but all helps hopefully .I just can't wait to get out myself I'm having to shield still.

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It’s still horrible wet sleet here but I did manage to get out yesterday in the drizzle to check my feeders and look at a new wood.

My flip top soil pipe feeder (see photo) is being used after only 3 days. My larger feeder had about 2” taken from the bottom flip top leaving all the maize on the top and the peanuts and sunflower seeds underneath. This is likely to be the red squirrel  Mice & I had seen feeding from it a few weeks ago. I have now removed the bottom flip top so squirrels, birds (& four legged mice) can  feed easier directly from the opening at the base. My worry is the bait will now get damp and be wasted. Time will tell.

I was expecting the new wood to be a fir plantation but it is mostly very large mature Beech and oak with thick rhododendrons underneath. It is very steep and slippy on the leaf mould beneath. Even though I didn’t have a gun, I slipped several times and rolled in the mud so have only checked out a small part of it. It is the only wood I have that doesn’t have a public footpath through it. I saw a couple of greys in the canopy and think the wood has great potential for a feeder- it just needs to dry out abit!

BB31DCAB-4B5C-4638-BDCB-48A46E5DB131.jpeg.198829022daebfe698fb9db3502bd413.jpeg

These are 2 feeders I have made from aluminium gas flue pipes, found in a skip. They are the same size as pvc soil pipes. No corners for squirrels to nibble.

I cut and nail a wood circle into the bottom of the pipe which can be screwed onto the bottom platform. The lid is laminate flooring from another skip, which works very well. The echo of a laminate lid falling will keep you awake!  I like the small flip top feeders, easy to make and carry. The main problems is when feed is running low, the squirrel gets inside and all you see is a tail!

I haven’t tried the larger feeder yet - and yes I found the decking in a skip!

I am lucky, a local caravan site closes down every year and the builders and skips move in. Acres of decking gets thrown away. I am waiting for a gas boiler to get dumped, the flat steel cabinet would make super metal  feeders just like Walkers oil drum ones.

Hope you can all get out soon and whack a few.

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I like re using old stuff. I have now had a couple of squidgies in my flip tops and managed to hold the lid down and trap them inside.  Might make you wonder should you see those feeders why there is a .22 sized hole in the back plate which matches the one on the front.  I now make sure there is a log or brick beneath the flip tops to put on the lid whilst I line up the rifle. 

I also salvage the sheet metal from the front and sides of any fridges/freezers which I see dumped. Always got the disc cutter in the landie just in case.

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57 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

I like re using old stuff. 

I also salvage the sheet metal from the front and sides of any fridges/freezers which I see dumped. Always got the disc cutter in the landie just in case.

Walker, I agree, I think make do and mend and recycling is second nature to us older folk.

Is your disc cutter battery powered? 

Today is Red Squirrel Appreciation Day and below is a copy of a letter Prince Charles has send to all the various Red Squirrel Groups. Even if there are no red squirrels in your area, you are still helping them by keeping greys under control and encouraging your friends and shoots to do similar.

HRH+Red+Squirrel+letter.pdf

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Yes, good article in the Telegraph today about Charles and the reds,  mentioned the people trying to protect them but did not say anyhting about removing the greys one way or another.

Disc cutter ,,,  battery powered, briliant bit of kt.  I have a cord model too for the workshop but almost always reach for the battery one.

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5 hours ago, Sciurus said:

was expecting the new wood to be a fir plantation but it is mostly very large mature Beech and oak with thick rhododendrons underneath. It is very steep and slippy on the leaf mould beneath. Even though I didn’t have a gun, I slipped several times and rolled in the mud so have only checked out a small part of it. It is the only wood I have that doesn’t have a public footpath through it. I saw a couple of greys in the canopy and think the wood has great potential for a feeder- it just needs to dry out abit!

It supposed to be the greys landing in the mud not you 😭😭 hope you didn't land on anything expensive. 

I've just taken a feeder down and swapped it for two,  then filled the big feeder, empty again and holds about 7 or 8kg, camera up on it now to see what's coming and when, hoping to get the owl taking a grey off the feeder.

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Slightly off key but this morning I saw something that made my morning.  I was in a small copse which is in a gulley and the trees and bushes form a dark tunnel. I can see about 40yrds into the gloom and I suddenly became aware of a dark shape in the centre of the copse floor which was not there a second or two before. I took a closer look through glass ....  you know the sort with funny litle calibrated cross hairs on.... and there was a buzzard hunched up over something. It lifted off carrying something. Now there had been a few woodpigeon feeding amongst the leaves and round the pheasant feeder earlier so when i left the hide I took a walk down and sure enough there was a pile of woodpigeon feathers including wing feathers and signs of a scuffle.  The buzzard had sorted his breakfast.  they are silent killers without doubt.

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1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

The buzzard had sorted his breakfast.  they are silent killers without doubt.

When I was changing feeders around this afternoon one of the resident buzzards came over really low and slow, I don't doubt it was looking for squirrels. 

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1 hour ago, Mice! said:

https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/greedy-fat-squirrels-risk-destroying-4907499

If it wasn't shocking it would be funny, especially as there is supposed to be a red squirrel group in Staffordshire. 

Its a shame that its there last resort to control the tree rats especially when they are causing so much damage to the new trees. 

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When the signs went up in Chester parks warning the public not to feed the greys, the greys started to attack children eating crisps etc.

Park managers are in between a rock and a hard place with the public, that’s why they pass the job onto someone else, like a red squirrel group etc or conservation group (they need a PTB - person to blame)

Sounds like a job for Walker - he can put the fat greys on a lead diet!

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Well I was out in the wood this frosty morning and I should have stayed in bed, just like all the wildlife must have done,absolutely nothing about, no greys, no pigeons, no crows, no magpies, did see the local buzzard flying about and heard the noisy jays, we'll just try again another day.

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8 hours ago, Mice! said:

https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/greedy-fat-squirrels-risk-destroying-4907499

If it wasn't shocking it would be funny, especially as there is supposed to be a red squirrel group in Staffordshire. 

Grey squirrel group on standby.....but we can't do anything without the permissions.

Seemingly lots of people here don't give a fig about the Reds returning but seem to love the Greys and raise opposition in public all of the time. The politicos do what they do best and run scared of any controversial decisions with regard to management issues?

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