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squirrel control


Mice!
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Well I was up earlyish yesterday morning but it was cold and I had to scrape the frost off the windscreen. Off to the first permission just 10 minutes away, a large house set in a few acres, he got me there to shoot greys but I'm sure the main reason was to shoot the multitude of rabbits that are digging up his lawns. Drove quiety in but there was no squirrel on the first feeding box near the entrance but a few rabbits, got the gun out and stalked in but as got closer a rabbit from a different direction scattered the lot. Sneaked up to the second flip top the other side of the house but empty of greys, so settled in to the hedge to wait as I could see there was peanuts gone from the last time I topped it up(plastic see through front),eventually a rabbit starts grazing 20 yards away and was despatched, not long after I sense a movement and watched a grey coming towards the flip top, it stops at the bottom of the tree and then moves yards away,drat it, anyway I sqeaked and it stops and stands up to be met by a pellet which goes right through its head, it must have bounced about for 10 seconds and gone 5 yards before expiring. I topped the feeder up again for next time and got a baby rabbit who was out with his 5 mates, so theres plenty yet to be had.

Off to the second permission 10 miles away towards the fell bottom, again I could see that peanuts had disapeared since my last visit when I shot two greys, so there must be some here still, I managed to last just an hour and a half before the icy cold wind from the Pennines froze my feet, still topped the feeder up and I will be back,

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I've had three visits this week for two squirrels,  blanked today,  there were squirrels in the tree tops but I couldn't get near them,  the feed is going down but not by much, but its been three lovely morning's with plenty of other wildlife to see.

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OK, so pretty much off topic, but I would really like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation for those guys on here that take the time to write a full and descriptive account of their forays, due to reasons that I will not bore you with I struggle to get out anywhere near as much as I used to, the snippets on this topic keep me going and, to me, are worth their weight in gold.

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@bruno22rf picture for you, I got a video as well, the kids were really happy seeing her, same position I was at with the kids Sunday morning,  but one person is a lot quieter than 3.

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It was strange this morning,  frozen fields, squirrels in the tree tops then just nothing, that feeder where the deer is has hardly been touched, and what's gone may well be the birds, they are loving the gap at the bottom,  but that feeder is coming back down the hill, the bracken is coming up and I'm seeing few squirrels up there.

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2 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

OK, so pretty much off topic, but I would really like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation for those guys on here that take the time to write a full and descriptive account of their forays, due to reasons that I will not bore you with I struggle to get out anywhere near as much as I used to, the snippets on this topic keep me going and, to me, are worth their weight in gold.

I'm sorry that you can't get out as much as you would like bruno and I'm sure like most of us its not just the shooting you are missing, its just being outside in the woods where ever watching the birds and other wildlife.

Take care.

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Lazy start this morning as I did not get in to the wood til 9am, could see the feeding box from 50 yards away and there was nothing on it, it wasn't til I got near my hide that I spooked a grey that was feeding on the overspill on the ground, it will be back I thought. Got settled in and the sun came out, the wood was alive with birdsong, it felt good. Thirty minutes went by and I spotted a squirrel coming from the other direction along the hedge line, damn it, this squirrel started feeding on the ground and some stupid burk hadn't cleared the new growth so all I could see was the top of the brush, I'll wait til it moves to get a clear shot I thought, five minutes later I decided to do something but before I could it shot up a tree barking and proceeded doing that for the next 15 minutes, why it got spooked I have no idea. Eventually it made its way down the tree and settled underneath the box to feed, I didn't mess about this time, pursed my lips and sqeaked and when it stood up let it have a pellet, a young male. Cos I could not see it I went and checked it was dead, good clean fatal head shot.And that was it for the day, pleasant when the sun was out, cool wind when in, but the warmth is starting to make things grow,new grass,ferns and leaves on the trees, birds nesting and predators waiting.

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Last Wednesday night I went down to my sons house in Lichfield to deal with a squirrel in his loft. 

I put two traps in the loft and two outside in the garden and had a celebratory beer.

7.30 am next morning, I was awoken by clanking in the loft and find I had caught these two miscreants.

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The female had filled the trap with insulation and as I picked up the trap in the loft, there was a third squirrel underneath! Game on!

11.30 am we heard the trap go off and another youngster was caught.

The greys had been getting in behind this gutter.9CC014EC-BA34-4E9E-8CDE-26F4AD1C11ED.jpeg.774f1267e839f0b6523823278be81edd.jpeg

After lunch, I climbed the ladder to see how they were getting in and a fourth squirrel stuck it’s head out the hole! It was inches away from my face, it certainly wasn’t afraid. This was the hole they had made through the pvc fascia.

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Now there was a fourth grey to catch, so I couldn’t just board up the fascia and return  home, so I had to stay another night.

After a well earned steak washed down by most of a bottle of Malbec, I happily went to bed.

11.30 pm, my son woke me up, the trap had gone off again and his girlfriend couldn’t sleep because of the racket in the loft- Oh Joy...next minute I found myself in his garden with a grey to cull, clad in just my boxer shorts!

Now that we had got the last grey, I thought as I was getting back into bed, that I could just board up the fascia after breakfast and go home. Not so...my son informed me over breakfast that he heard a squirrel enter the loft at 5.30am. Grrrrrrrr

I checked the loft and there he was, scampering about and ignoring the traps. I banged about and he exited through the shredded roofing felt.

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We quickly went outside and boarded up the fascia with aluminium sheet carefully dressed into all the curves of the tiles. Let them chew through that, I thought. Job done and time to go home.

Not so. As we were loading up the car, his girlfriend heard familiar noises in the loft. Oh poo! (or something similar was said). I had now boarded up a grey in his loft. Tough!

I cut an apple in half and put a piece in each trap in the loft, gave him my old BSA Cadet Major  and escaped home back  up the M6. I had had enough!

By the time I got home, number five had been caught. I haven’t heard from him since, so hopefully that’s the lot. However, we never caught the male......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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35 minutes ago, Sciurus said:

After lunch, I climbed the ladder to see how they were getting in and a fourth squirrel stuck it’s head out the hole! It was inches away from my face, it certainly wasn’t afraid

Good job it wasn't your lad on the ladder 😅😅

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7 minutes ago, ratchers said:

Don't the squirrels have trees to live in down south? 🤣

Must be posh to want to live in a house unlike northern squirrels!

Seriously though it must be a nightmare for your relatives or anybody.

 Posh squizzers in Lichfield bud, cathedral views.

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1 minute ago, ratchers said:

Don't the squirrels have trees to live in down south?

Good point. When he had this trouble last year, there was a tree growing at the gable at gutter height, which he cut down thinking it would stop them, which it did for a few months. Obviously they must be following instinct if they were originally born there.

46 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

  Needs a trap in the garden now.

A trap is going on the shed roof permanently.

I also went buy a Fenn trap for the loft, but the spring was so strong, I struggled to open it a few millimetres, so didn’t buy it in the end

Looking on the internet, I think Fenn have licensed a few manufacturers to to make them. One of them is a heavy duty spring manufacturer. I must have looked at one of these.  Has anyone else had this problem with the Mk 6?

21 minutes ago, old man said:

 Posh squizzers in Lichfield bud, cathedral views.

I don’t know about posh- but the squizzers are not shy or easily intimidated!

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Up at six for a 7am start and saw the snow in the Langdales from the window. After all the rain, I didn’t expect that.

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Chucked a bucket of water over the car to clear the ice and at 7.01am Met my pal and whippets -already holding a large female grey- he had started without me!

Twenty yards from the parked cars, there was a rustle in a yew, my pal popped one and another ran into a silver birch, which I shot a minute later. 2 juveniles. We had a record 3greys in 1st 5 mins.

5 mins later Pal had another adult female but our hands were getting cold and the trees were beginning to glow in the sun. A tawny owl was spotted silently watching us. We split up, I spotted with the thermal, what I thought was a red in the crack of a tree, it had tufty ears hunched back and dark tail (no halo), my pal approached from the rear and it ran- another grey. He clipped it and I popped it. Turned out, I had seen  its back and interpreted the torn wood for tufts and tail. Better safe than sorry! (my cheap binos were misting up). Must buy better ones.

We climbed abit higher to walk into the sun and avoid redding out, it was beginning to warm up nicely with the promise of a lovely day.

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We turned into a smaller wood where I had seen one a week ago and immediately the older whippet put one up an oak. Bang, it was down but a runner, which was quickly retrieved by the older whippet.

At the top of wood, my pal spotted movement in a tree top, as we got closer, I was sure I saw 2 disappearing into a crack. Turned out there was a small drey there and as my pal walked round to the other side, a large grey crept out of the drey in front of me. An easy shot and thankfully I didn’t miss. Another large female. My pal gave me some abuse about seeing two squirrels, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw another sneaking off and down came a scrawny juvenile.

By now the thermals were pretty useless and we decided to all it a day. (The joggers and dog walkers were already out enjoying the weather). On the way down , I spotted a branch moving suspiciously, sure enough a large grey enjoying the sun, my pal was closer, so I let him have the shot. Another adult female.

We had the total of 9 within 90 minutes. 4 adult females but strangely no adult males. I am still shooting with the homemade foam rubber cheek riser on the .410 Hushpower, what a difference it has made to my shooting (& confidence). Who cares what the gun looks like!

We weren’t expecting much but this was one of the best days, I have had for a while. It might be the last, the leaves are coming out very quickly.

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4 hours ago, Sciurus said:

We had the total of 9 within 90 minutes. 4 adult females but strangely no adult males. I am still shooting with the homemade foam rubber cheek riser on the .410 Hushpower, what a difference it has made to my shooting (& confidence). Who cares what the gun looks like!

We weren’t expecting much but this was one of the best days, I have had for a while. It might be the last, the leaves are coming out very quickly.

Sounds like a great morning mate, I sat for two hours and left when I couldn't feel my feet 🥶🥶 I've moved the golf course feeder to be able to shoot more freely,  but the sun wasn't getting onto the feeder till after 9am, I didn't see a squirrel all morning,  I'm expecting it was the cold?

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The day got even better. Yesterday, I started trapping at two hotels after a week of baiting and this afternoon I caught this adult female-a real monster. Where are the males hiding?

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@Mice! Sorry to hear you drew a blank, it’s no fun when you get cold. That’s why I prefer to walk until the weather warms up.

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2 hours ago, Sciurus said:

The day got even better. Yesterday, I started trapping at two hotels after a week of baiting and this afternoon I caught this adult female-a real monster. Where are the males hiding?

32139623-6901-4DEB-BE6E-6FEA446771D0.jpeg.370462b7b0566bf1406c1b32e1a1375c.jpeg

@Mice! Sorry to hear you drew a blank, it’s no fun when you get cold. That’s why I prefer to walk until the weather warms up.

First time I've seen nothing at the golf course in a long while, I topped up the feeder yesterday afternoon and there was a squirrel on the feeder, but the cold just seemed to sit there this morning,  it was nice in the sun though walking out.

Hopefully be warmer over the next few weeks,  if its that cold again tomorrow I'm going walk about,  at least then I'll keep the blood flowing 😁

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I to was out yesterday morning and it was cold, I had to scrape the windscreen.

It didn't start well with two clear misses at rabbits at my squirrel/rabbit permission so round to the back of the house to the feeding box and something was wrong, the flip top lid was missing, but when I got close it was just in the upright position but at least this told me a squirrel must have lifted it, got in to the hedge line to wait and saw all manner of birds taking advantage of the open top and feeding on the peanuts, no grey appeared but I did get two rabbits.

Off on to the next permission,at least it gave my feet time to warm up in the car! Got there and I could see from a distance through the perspex front that the peanut level had gone down on the box. Its gonna be cold so lets hope the greys turn up quickly, got settled in to the hide and had a hot drink,Heard a funny noise and turned around slowly to see Mrs Duck and two ducklings waddling past me only four feet away,fantastic. Every now and then I saw a grey in the disance and after an hour one settled on the box was was despatched, followed quickly five minutes later by another,both males. I stuck it out for another 30 minutes before frozen feet said move but that was not the end of the excitement , as I was packing up I heard a right screeching commotion,looked up and saw a Peregrine Falcon chasing a Buzzard through the trees, I think it was protecting its nest.

 

Great pictures Scurius, even if you have an unsucessful day, you never gonna get bored with vistas like that.

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9 hours ago, ratchers said:

Off on to the next permission,at least it gave my feet time to warm up in the car

I'm glad it wasn't just me 😆😆

I went out again this morning,  but I wasn't planning on sitting in the cold again,  I thought I'd take a walk, fill the feeders and see what's about before the trees are in full leaf, on my way there I thought I'd go somewhere I don't normally go.

I was in what looked like perfect squirrel country but I only saw one a good way off, there were birds everywhere though.

I don't normally go to that area because of the parking and dog walkers so at about half 7 decided to leave, nearly back at the car a squirrel almost fell on me and high tailed along the ground ( no whippet or 410) I followed along but couldn't see where it went, unloaded the gun and put it away,  turned around and there is a squirrel in the tree behind me 🤔 it was totally relaxed so I think it was a different squirrel,  gun out squirrel stopped, pfft whack a young female. 

Back to where I normally go , refilled a couple of feeders and had a mooch around,  no squirrels anywhere still?

Plenty of deer around and song birds again but not a squirrel to be seen.

But if your quiet and cheat you never know what you might see.

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