Mice! Posted June 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 Some strange squirrel behavior today. We were away last week and apparently there were some high winds while we were gone. I have a small covered bird table with a suet block on it, found this way the rats can't get at it, it was on its side with the block gone. Everything back as it should be and this morning I'm watching the birds before I go to bed. Lovely pair of green finches and various others when I spot a squirrel in the garden!!! Haven't seen one in months in my garden. It's probably 50 meters away, window open gun out just in case, it ambled up the garden without a care in the world going in and out of bushes and shrubs, stopped to look and sniff where the bird table had fallen then came so close to the house you would think we had been hand feeding it. he then sort of hops back to the edge of the patio and picks a strawberry without a care in the world, pop! Young male who obviously enjoyed himself while we were away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted June 20, 2018 Report Share Posted June 20, 2018 (edited) The new wood I am sorting tree rats is split into four halves by a cross ride. I had set up a 'magnum' flip top in one quarter..probably ten acres and had those 18 last week, but the keeper told me I was at the quiet end. Go set one up below where the old pen used to be he advised. So, back into the workshop, sort around for some scrap to make another magnum and game up with this. It will have a wooden back and 'tray' to sit on. All steel this time and will be cammoed up a bit with paint to make it less obvious. I'm popping over this Friday to put it in position and low and behold there is an old wooden shed near where I want to put it which I can use as a hide. I am slowly running out of magpies at one of my farms and noticed a few squirrels getting in and around the yard and holding pens. There is a 100 yrd sling of trees which runs behind the sheds and ajoins a 2000 acre area of woodland (not part of the farm). I took a flip top in there and put up a hide 72hrs ago, filled the feeder with peanuts as a come on and put some around the tree base. Went back to put some additional camo on the hide and checked the feeder. The stick was gone and when I looked in there was a sizeable area where peanuts had been taken(I filled to the top and smoothed them level). I topped up with whole maize and spread some liberally in the open area. Left there at 3pm and went back at 7pm and again there was a definite dip where maize had been taken and the stick I had lodged the lid up with was also on the floor. WATCH THIS SPACE!!!! Edited June 20, 2018 by Walker570 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2018 you be careful walker, with your recent adventures you will be shooting the windscreen ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 Saw something this morning I could not believe. Squirrel came from behind, actually under the cabin and was on a mission it got about 30yrds away and paused just long enough for me to settle the cross hairs but before I could squeeze one off a big fat rabbit took half a dozen bounds and landed right on top of Mr Tree Rat, initentionally no doubt as it chased it for about ten yards. Never saw that squirrel again. Never believed a rabbit would attack a squirrel. They are on the move. I have four moved in and cleared one up, three to go including the one above, which my wife says has just run back down from the village, so I have to go........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 perhaps it was saying run away there is a bloke with a gun, have you not watched peter rabbit, although peter rabbits squirrel friends are reds ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39TDS Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 12 hours ago, Walker570 said: Saw something this morning I could not believe. Squirrel came from behind, actually under the cabin and was on a mission it got about 30yrds away and paused just long enough for me to settle the cross hairs but before I could squeeze one off a big fat rabbit took half a dozen bounds and landed right on top of Mr Tree Rat, initentionally no doubt as it chased it for about ten yards. Never saw that squirrel again. Never believed a rabbit would attack a squirrel. They are on the move. I have four moved in and cleared one up, three to go including the one above, which my wife says has just run back down from the village, so I have to go........ I've sat and watched a rabbit chasing a crow. Each time the crow landed the rabbit was back at him. Quite comical and a bit Monty Pythonish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2018 We'll up out and in the woods this morning by 6am, as I'm walking in i can hear a right commotion, then out of the bushes flies a tawny owl with a young blackbird in its talons with the parent blackbird going nuts chasing it. round the corner no one about rifle out and sneak up on the bird tables, nothing obvious then from out of nowhere a runner with his dog!! Five past 6, morning, morning. i wait a few minutes and above me i see movement two young squirrels, there spooked i should of just kept still but i lifted the rifle and boom, they were off i lost sight off them after a few hundred yards, they weren't stopping for anything. Gun away change position, heard a commotion again so i backed up and was maybe two metres from a male blackbird which was going nuts, when right from the side of me a tawny owl i hadn't seen bursts out of the rhododendron. i stayed another hour getting buzzed by the midges, only really my eyes they could get to but its very off putting, and why do they try to get in your ears? nothing to be seen other than young birds doing there thing, all the feeders were empty of nuts, seems the squirrels don't like the heat any more than me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 27, 2018 Report Share Posted June 27, 2018 Mice, it sounds as bad as my day yesterday morning. I had been asked to shoot a grey that had invaded a wood supporting a small colony of reds. I got there by 7 and was soon joined by a red who periodically raided the feeder and sat on a branch above eating monkey nuts and just watched me. After an hour, a grey crept down the tree towards the feeder, but before I could raise the air rifle, the red turned on the grey and chased it off, never to return. when I told the volunteer who looks after the reds, she said she had asked me to have a go shooting because a red was chasing off any greys before they could enter the *Becks trap! A red with attitude... * (A trap designed to catch greys only). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2018 49 minutes ago, Sciurus said: * (A trap designed to catch greys only). your not getting away with just that, any pictures or other info on this trap? hopefully one of the other chaps will get a couple over the weekend now the feeders are topped up, on the Brightside the fella didn't freak out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 28, 2018 Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 I took a photo of the aggressive little chap on my phone but I can’t seem to be able to attach it. Anyway, The reds are used to people topping up the feeders and just take no notice of humans except as something interesting to watch. I hope to go back tomorrow and a) get the intruding grey and b) take a photo of the Becks trap on an iPad. I haven’t used a Becks trap but understand it is tripped by the weight of the heavier grey and that there is also a small exit hole just in case a red is caught. Unfortunately this means some adolescent greys can escape. It’s not perfect but better than nothing except abit of selective shooting (providing the reds let me!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted June 28, 2018 Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 (edited) On 24/06/2018 at 21:30, Mice! said: ? I have never seen these traps. I use the standard live cage trap modified with a large mesh peanut feeder in the end. I often catch things I don't wish to eliminate and can very easily and simply release them. I have a cock woodpecker who has been caught and released so many times we are almost on speaking terms. Why can't these same traps be used? OK mine get visited at least twice a day which you should and have to do, but that also includes any other trap in my view. The box at the top is not relevant and I do not know how to delete it. It keeps popping up everytime I go to make a reply. Edited June 28, 2018 by Walker570 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 2 hours ago, Walker570 said: Why can't these same traps be used? OK mine get visited at least twice a day which you should and have to do, but that also includes any other trap in my view people say that being trapped causes stress and i can understand that, so the idea of reds being able to escape makes sense, i set my trap light so it gets rats as well but i can check it as often as I like being in the garden. 2 hours ago, Sciurus said: hope to go back tomorrow and a) get the intruding grey and b) take a photo of the Becks trap on an iPad. I haven’t used a Becks trap but understand it is tripped by the weight of the heavier grey and that there is also a small exit hole just in case a red is caught. Unfortunately this means some adolescent greys can escape. It’s not perfect but better than nothing except abit of selective shooting (providing the reds let me!) let's hope the grey is either in the trap waiting or shows you a nice broadside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 29, 2018 Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 Well it’s funny you should say that! I was on my way to the wood, when I got a phone call that the Trail camera had just reported in that a grey had been caught and would I block the red escape hatch until the volunteer for the wood arrives. The 1st photo shows 2 Becks traps with 1 ordinary trail camera and the far one sends a video to a computer, the grey is in the left hand trap. The 2nd photo shows, the grey hiding in the feeder, the treadle in front of the feeder, a branch blocking the escape hatch and to the left hand side the shut entry door with catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 29, 2018 Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 The next two photos show a close up of the trap door and the mechanism beneath the trap. It works like the old fashioned spring kitchen weigh scales and is adjustable for weight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 29, 2018 Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 Once caught, the grey is transferred into a normal trap and culled. In this case it was an adult female. The last photo shows the trap with side and feeder removed for sterilising after catching the grey. The balance/treadle is in the foreground. An interesting morning! I can’t attach the last two photos, it tells me I can only upload 2.73mb. Can anyone tell me how to get round this? Walker, I guess the answer to your question is the Becks is better than an ordinary trap because reds will feed in the trap without setting it off and as such will attract a grey, who follows the scent and thinks it is safe to enter. Your method means a red sets off the trap and until it is released, the trap cannot catch any greys. In areas, where there is a slight possibility of a thing a red, we use an ordinary trap with an escape hatch in the door . We cover ordinary traps with builder plastic, this protects any captured squirrel from the elements and seems to stop any bird from entering - there are plenty woodpeckers here. The Beck traps have a feeder with a lid, which I suppose also deters birds from entering the trap. Sorry for so many posts- I am not very computer literate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 16 minutes ago, Sciurus said: can’t attach the last two photos, it tells me I can only upload 2.73mb. Can anyone tell me how to get round this? just go back on and upload more pics, you can shrink them but this is the other way of going about it. 52 minutes ago, Sciurus said: I was on my way to the wood, when I got a phone call that the Trail camera had just reported in that a grey had been caught and would I block the red escape hatch until the volunteer for the wood arrives did you not just deal with the squirrel when you arrived? Certainly seems well organised if you've got trail cams sending you pictures so you know when you have caught a squirrel, and 50 pics of birds ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 29, 2018 Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 Hi Unfortunately, It still won’t let me upload the last two photos, they are the same size (I presume) as the others. There doesn’t seem to be any way of reducing them. Anyway back to why I didn’t cull the grey in the Becks trap. Professional courteousy as much as anything, it wasn’t my trap, I had been asked to just stand guard and I neither knew how to operate the trap or had the equipment to safely extract the grey into a normal cage. I could not just shoot it because it would have bled everywhere and the traps are kept scruplesly clean and sterile. Apart from that, I wanted to learn more about the use of the trap. The amount of photos, isn’t much of a problem, if an alert is received, the volunteer only has to look at the last photo to check whether a grey has been trapped, the other photos are then irrelevant. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted June 29, 2018 Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 2 hours ago, Sciurus said: Once caught, the grey is transferred into a normal trap and culled. In this case it was an adult female. The last photo shows the trap with side and feeder removed for sterilising after catching the grey. The balance/treadle is in the foreground. An interesting morning! I can’t attach the last two photos, it tells me I can only upload 2.73mb. Can anyone tell me how to get round this? Walker, I guess the answer to your question is the Becks is better than an ordinary trap because reds will feed in the trap without setting it off and as such will attract a grey, who follows the scent and thinks it is safe to enter. Your method means a red sets off the trap and until it is released, the trap cannot catch any greys. In areas, where there is a slight possibility of a thing a red, we use an ordinary trap with an escape hatch in the door . We cover ordinary traps with builder plastic, this protects any captured squirrel from the elements and seems to stop any bird from entering - there are plenty woodpeckers here. The Beck traps have a feeder with a lid, which I suppose also deters birds from entering the trap. Sorry for so many posts- I am not very computer literate. Got it, see your thinking. Keep up the good work. We will keep killing the grey tree rats here as and whenever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted June 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2018 7 hours ago, Sciurus said: Anyway back to why I didn’t cull the grey in the Becks trap. Professional courteousy as much as anything, it wasn’t my trap, I had been asked to just stand guard and I neither knew how to operate the trap or had the equipment to safely extract the grey into a normal cage. I could not just shoot it because it would have bled everywhere and the traps are kept scruplesly clean and sterile. Apart from that, I wanted to learn more about the use of the trap. yes that makes sense, i was thinking first person there sorts it out, and no need to be sorry its interesting stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus Posted June 30, 2018 Report Share Posted June 30, 2018 my son has now helped me attach the last 2 photos. Sorry about the quality. The top one is an empty Becks trap with side and feeder removed ready for sterilising after the catch.The feeder is perched on the top. The actual process of transferring the grey into an ordinary trap is abit of a pain. The mink trap is attached to the side of the Becks trap with bungee cords top and bottom. Then mink trap door is raised and then the Becks trap door and the grey is persuaded to move into the mink trap and the door is released. Ready for the grey to be culled on the ground and the Becks trap cleaned and sterilised. In South Cumbria, The red colonies are generally in valleys or remote areas like this location, because the greys won’t come over bare hills and tend to follow the streams and tree lines etc. This means that volunteers like myself can concentrate on trapping and shooting the greys In the surrounding areas and the reduce the numbers of greys invading the red areas. Of course it is not so simple, because the reds do occasionally spread out to new areas, which is good, but it does mean that we have to constantly be on the keeping the numbers of greys to a minimum, which is quite time consuming. When things are a bit quiet, this gives us time to tackle woods and properties that are further away to reduce the numbers of greys coming into our area. Keep up the good fight! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Interesting read from BASC: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 I think the maps say it all. There again one of those idiots who introduced the grey also introduced one of the best eating deer in the world...the muntie !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mice! Posted July 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 3 hours ago, DC177 said: Interesting read from BASC: Someone posted that on Facebook but didn't realise it was a basc mag, anyone post me a copy when your done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartyboy Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 PM me an address if you want a copy sent to you Stuart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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