squirrel control

[Mice!]

I've just read a post on FB, lots of folk saying the same that they aren't seeing many, but obviously in areas that are getting shot all year.

Then a couple of people having vermin days on shoots getting 30-70 where it's clearly just hitting them occasionally.

2 hours ago, sam triple said:

Mates been up there since first light and nothing 

At least its only getting light now at 6 as the clocks have changed. 

35 minutes ago, ratchers said:

Was out yesterday afternoon to the sydicates wood and the feeder was empty from getting topped up a week before.After about an hour listening to the song birds I hear a noise behind me and a grey appears from my left heading towards the feeder, it stops for a drink which may or may not have saved its life, as another squirrel is on the feeder,it doesn't enjoy the peanuts for long,I look round for the other grey but gone,hey ho never mind. Five minutes later theres another grey on the box,was it the first one,probably,it joins its mate at the bottom.I was quite satisfied with two as its been very quiet,even the birds have been silent,maybe the sun brought them out.

Nicely done, two at the moment feels like a great day. 

[leakyseals]

finally bagged one, a young male that has been going haywire for the last 2 days burying my bait peanuts all over the garden

[old man]

Out this morning, snow flurries but bright and the usual cold wind.

Couple of Foresters working the dreys was a surprise, not seeing any tree rats wasn't.

They had 14 so will add them to the totals.

 

[Mice!]

2 minutes ago, old man said:

Couple of Foresters working the dreys was a surprise, not seeing any tree rats wasn't.

What were they doing  poking and shooting?

[old man]

22 hours ago, Mice! said:

What were they doing  poking and shooting?

Yep. 

[Walker570]

Well, I filled all three flip tops last Sunday so decided to have a look this morning. Arrived prior to dawn and sat it out until 9am.  At 08.30 one did show and suffered the consequences but not a sign anywhere lese on the golf course. The feeders had been only lightly used...a weeks use by two maybe three only. That made 55 i have sorted on that course and I am not seeing any running around, wherehas on first going there it was normal to see fifteen or twenty running around the fairways.  I'll leave it two weeks and make another visit.

[Mice!]

1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Well, I filled all three flip tops last Sunday so decided to have a look this morning. Arrived prior to dawn and sat it out until 9am.  At 08.30 one did show and suffered the consequences but not a sign anywhere lese on the golf course. The feeders had been only lightly used...a weeks use by two maybe three only. That made 55 i have sorted on that course and I am not seeing any running around, wherehas on first going there it was normal to see fifteen or twenty running around the fairways.  I'll leave it two weeks and make another visit.

Good stuff Nev 👍

[Fisheruk]

Out into the private wood this morning, just before daybreak. One grey which was on a mission passing through and a Red which came through the canopy. The dawn chorus is Constant bird activity Ravens, magpies, Jays. Robin, Great spotter woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wrens, Robins, Song Thrush, Blackbirds, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bull Finch, Chiffchaff it certainly is good to be out and see the abundance of birdlife when grey squirrel control is in place.

I’ll be back later in the week to see if I can get that grey, maybe it won’t be in such a hurry.

[Walker570]

12 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

Out into the private wood this morning, just before daybreak. One grey which was on a mission passing through and a Red which came through the canopy. The dawn chorus is Constant bird activity Ravens, magpies, Jays. Robin, Great spotter woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wrens, Robins, Song Thrush, Blackbirds, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bull Finch, Chiffchaff it certainly is good to be out and see the abundance of birdlife when grey squirrel control is in place.

I’ll be back later in the week to see if I can get that grey, maybe it won’t be in such a hurry.

Yep, pity the fluffu lovers don't see it that way.  Cerainly on my patch it has made a huge difference to song bird numbers.

Keep whacking and stacking.

[sam triple]

Few signs of life down here at last one on my garden fence earlier and just heard on barking , hopefully the woods will turn on soon 

[Fisheruk]

It was blowing a gale and had been throwing it down, but as soon as the rain eased off a large male arrived for its last meal.

[old man]

On 03/04/2022 at 11:48, Walker570 said:

Well, I filled all three flip tops last Sunday so decided to have a look this morning. Arrived prior to dawn and sat it out until 9am.  At 08.30 one did show and suffered the consequences but not a sign anywhere lese on the golf course. The feeders had been only lightly used...a weeks use by two maybe three only. That made 55 i have sorted on that course and I am not seeing any running around, wherehas on first going there it was normal to see fifteen or twenty running around the fairways.  I'll leave it two weeks and make another visit.

👍 Brilliant

On 03/04/2022 at 13:58, Fisheruk said:

Out into the private wood this morning, just before daybreak. One grey which was on a mission passing through and a Red which came through the canopy. The dawn chorus is Constant bird activity Ravens, magpies, Jays. Robin, Great spotter woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wrens, Robins, Song Thrush, Blackbirds, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bull Finch, Chiffchaff it certainly is good to be out and see the abundance of birdlife when grey squirrel control is in place.

I’ll be back later in the week to see if I can get that grey, maybe it won’t be in such a hurry.

👍 Superb.

[old man]

Rain, icy cold  blustery wind and a brightening sky, what's not to like?

1 today, crept in along  the fenceline popped up a beech, stopping to scoff a bursting bud. Pop went the 200, down it went into the brambles as a snack for the night crew.

[Fisheruk]

We’ve just completed a week of trapping in a 50 acre parcel of woodland where we trapped last year about the same time of the year. 60 trap days, same number of trap days for both years. Last year we had 20 greys in the trapping week, this week just 3! The three last days of the session were blanks. I’ve been shooting to feeders in that woodland since last year’s trapping week and took just over 50 out of that wood. I haven’t shot the wood for a month and the feeders have been empty for the last month to stop the greys  expecting a free meal on the feeder and to get them back on the ground for the trapping week. 
We are starting the next adjacent 50 acre woodland trapping week today and will look to see how many we get from this area.

[sam triple]

2 down today after a very long month with nothing 

[Walker570]

Suppose if we are not seing the numbers we must be having an effect on our areas.  I know that numbers have certainly dropped this year so far, even on the golf course and my own small wood we have not seen a sign now for a number of weeks and a like minded villager 1/2 mile away is not seeing the numbers but between us we have shot a hundred or more just out of this small hamlet in the last six months.  Anyway keep ahcking and stacking.

[Good shot?]

Last one I had was on 24th February this year, but it feels like last year.

Very much in decline around my permissions. One can only try and I will be doing just that in the morning.

[sam triple]

Only warmer weather will tell, I belong to a group on FB dealing with grey control the country is set up in sections, virtually every area is saying no squirrels 

Edited April 9, 2022 by sam triple

[Fisheruk]

A mature grey male this morning but multiple Reds on the bird feeder.

 

[Mice!]

On 08/04/2022 at 21:56, Fisheruk said:

haven’t shot the wood for a month and the feeders have been empty for the last month to stop the greys  expecting a free meal on the feeder and to get them back on the ground for the trapping week. 

I don't understand this, if the feeders have been empty then the squirrels will go off elsewhere looking for food, you would expect less having shot 50 but I'd have wanted to keep the feeders running till the trapping started.

We were down in the Midlands this weekend,  we had a 2hr walk this afternoon in some lovely countryside,  pheasants everywhere, red kites gliding around,  but we never saw any squirrels.

[Longbower]

Soooo,  it sounds like something strange is going on .In the last two months , just one squirrel , despite keeping the feeders topped up with nuts , neither myself , or the wildlife camera's have seen a squirrel . 

I wonder if something similar to RHD2 , which wiped out 70% of the UK's  wild rabbits has hit the grey's.?

[Mice!]

11 hours ago, Longbower said:

wonder if something similar to RHD2 , which wiped out 70% of the UK's  wild rabbits has hit the grey's.?

I'm sure we say the same thing every year, I took 81 out of big wood last year, and this year only 14 to date, most of us on here are well on top of the greys and the few females that are around will be staying close to there dreys feeding young.

I'm seeing some posts still of people taking threes and fours, another fella regularly taking double figures, probably depends on the ground you're covering and how much control has been done already.

[Fisheruk]

16 hours ago, Mice! said:

I don't understand this, if the feeders have been empty then the squirrels will go off elsewhere looking for food, you would expect less having shot 50 but I'd have wanted to keep the feeders running till the trapping started.

We were down in the Midlands this weekend,  we had a 2hr walk this afternoon in some lovely countryside,  pheasants everywhere, red kites gliding around,  but we never saw any squirrels.

No, historically the woods hadn’t been shot and there were 30-40 squirrels trapped every year at this time. Because we wanted to maintain the trapping data on a similar basis I agreed not to use the feeders, nor shoot the wood for a month. So that the squirrels would return to their normal levels. There’s plenty of natural food about now. After the trapping of the other half of the wood this week, I’ll put the feeders back and see what else is about. The bottom line is that after shooting the wood for nearly a year I knew there were hardly any squirrels left, which is what the first week of trapping has shown.

[Mice!]

59 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

No, historically the woods hadn’t been shot and there were 30-40 squirrels trapped every year at this time. Because we wanted to maintain the trapping data on a similar basis I agreed not to use the feeders, nor shoot the wood for a month. So that the squirrels would return to their normal levels. There’s plenty of natural food about now. After the trapping of the other half of the wood this week, I’ll put the feeders back and see what else is about. The bottom line is that after shooting the wood for nearly a year I knew there were hardly any squirrels left, which is what the first week of trapping has shown.

The data can't be the same because you have shot 50 from the wood, then left it to return to normal for a month,  they'll have trapped 30-40 normally because it was the only time anything was done?

Fella on the Agf was trapping last week because his numbers are so low, he's taken 240+ now from a wood over 12 months, using feeders and cameras to monitor the numbers and times they are visiting, when the visits are low across a couple of feeders he puts out traps, but he still managed 11 last week.

https://www.airgunforum.co.uk/community/index.php?threads/bagged-a-few-greys-this-week-no-shooting-though.378154/

[Walker570]

18 hours ago, Mice! said:

I don't understand this, if the feeders have been empty then the squirrels will go off elsewhere looking for food, you would expect less having shot 50 but I'd have wanted to keep the feeders running till the trapping started.

We were down in the Midlands this weekend,  we had a 2hr walk this afternoon in some lovely countryside,  pheasants everywhere, red kites gliding around,  but we never saw any squirrels.

I should hope you didn't after all the hard work I've put in.  You should have said, tea pot always on and just 20 mins off the M6 or 10 off the M42.