squirrel control

[old man]

5 today. 3 breeding boars and 2 in the brambles.

Feeders hit hard again.

[Fisheruk]

Just returned from the village community pub, which does the best Sunday lunch. Sitting outside I saw a twitch in the trees at the back. Quickly in through the French Doors and out with the FX Verminator. Back in the chair facing where I have a feeder on a post by some bushes. A few seconds later and a young female falls off it.

 

[mick.c]

Wow a big feeder 🤔

[sam triple]

2 bores and a sow yesterday afternoon 

 

[Fisheruk]

11 hours ago, mick.c said:

Wow a big feeder 🤔

Ha, ha. But I still use the small feeders where I go to most frequently.

Hope you are well Mick and still getting out on the greys.

Plenty of Red Squirrels too.

 

[Fisheruk]

Another from nuts beneath a woodland feeder. They are on the green pine cones now, so natural food is going to slow action on the feeders for a few weeks

 

[leakyseals]

Seen the first activity for a while this morning, 2 juvenile males and a big lactating sow taken one after the other in the live trap. 

[Fisheruk]

Out this morning in the wood.

I have a feeder fixed to a 60ft pine tree. The greys are on the green pine cones in the canopy above. I put some peanuts on the ground and went and say in my spot under an adjacent Yew tree. I don’t bother with any netting just sit quietly and still with a sniper’s scrim over my head. After a bit of a wait I hear the scratching of a squirrel on the back and a male comes down f a peanut. He didn’t go back to his mates in the canopy.

I’ll probably have to go back with the 20g to get them out of the canopy. 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Fisheruk

[Fisheruk]

Out in the woods early, squirrels up in the canopy on the green cones. 
Two squirrels came by and played around with each other, male and female, both 520 grams.

Shot both on the ground beneath the feeder, within 2 minutes!

 

 

[Mice!]

I was out yesterday afternoon,  I put a small feeder up where I usually have one in big wood, then went to check the other feeders, it's probably the first time they haven't been emptied,  but they were almost empty. 

look at all the shell casings on the floor!!

Then some chewing damage which I imagine is young squirrels trying to get in the feeders,  I'll be there shooting Wednesday morning and probably ho check Monday night, add some nuts and put the camera up.

On 07/07/2022 at 22:50, Fisheruk said:

I’ll probably have to go back with the 20g to get them out of the canopy. 

I like it when there on the green pine cones, because they tend to just sit there, great if you can get a clear shot at them 

[Fisheruk]

9 hours ago, Mice! said:

I was out yesterday afternoon,  I put a small feeder up where I usually have one in big wood, then went to check the other feeders, it's probably the first time they haven't been emptied,  but they were almost empty. 

look at all the shell casings on the floor!!

Then some chewing damage which I imagine is young squirrels trying to get in the feeders,  I'll be there shooting Wednesday morning and probably ho check Monday night, add some nuts and put the camera up.

I like it when there on the green pine cones, because they tend to just sit there, great if you can get a clear shot at them 

80 ft pine trees and younger trees beneath not easy. I’ll try the 20g if they d keep coming down.

[Sciurus]

 

They are hitting the Noble fir up here.

A 12g job, me thinks

[sam triple]

Just the one bore yesterday think they’re on natural food sources now 

[Fisheruk]

Well I was sitting out watching the birds busying themselves on the bird feeder which I have hanging beneath a squirrel feeder. My gun wasn’t even ready, and a squirrel appears on the tree behind the feeder and promptly drops onto the feeder and in a moment lifts the lid for a nut. I have to get up for my gun and the squirrel jumps back into the bushes. I load the gun and sit back to wait. Within a couple of minutes the squirrel returns and helps itself to another monkey nut. Sitting on the platform I slowly raise the gun and place the cross hairs on the top of its head because it’s closer than my normal zero. Safety off, squeeze the trigger and the perfect head shot drops it on the spot. Another for the FAC FX Verminator.

 

23 hours ago, Sciurus said:

 

They are hitting the Noble fir up here.

A 12g job, me thinks

Yes, they are on the green Scots pine cones here 

[Walker570]

Small article  Nature Notes back page of the Daily Telegraph today about the Government approving the use of contraseptives for grey squirrel control.  It is going to take many years to see that become effective so we must keep whacking and stacking but good to have it in the national press that they are a serious pest.  How many do you think live inside the M25 circle?  Certainly a good place to start.  I have a neighbour who thinks fluffy is lovely and the small wood she owns is heaving with them but I now have it covered both ends and any which do venture out make a serious mistake.

I am sure there are tens of thousands out there who feel the same as she does.  It needs more publicity.

[Mice!]

I finally managed to get in the woods with the rifle 😁 I've been going after work to keep my feeders topped up, but it's often gone ten pm when I'm leaving the woods which after 12hr shifts makes it a long day.

I was out Monday night,  I topped up and put up a camera,  then put up another feeder where I usually shoot, knowing I could shoot this morning. 

The problem with getting up for work at 5:35 is I don't want to get up on my off days 😆😆

So it was just before 7am when I approached the feeders, I had a look but there were just birds to be seen, made my way around unable to move quietly with the floor like corn flakes, and up pops a squirrel!!

Nothing I can do about that, so I got into position hoping it would come back.

 

Then the buses arrived,  roughly 15mins apart,  three squirrels followed the same path, down the hill along the wall, go past me by only about 10mtrs then across to the feeder.

#1 went up onto the big feeder, lifted the lid, found a good bit then got shot.

#2 went to the small feeder, rooted and found something then turned my way to eat it, so got it through the forehead. 

#3 didn't go to the feeder tree, it dithered,  went missing then appeared and sat up, so got shot in the back of the head, 3 shots three down.

Three males. 

I gave it 25mins then went to clear up the bodies and collected the camera,  I thought I'd check through while giving it some more time, as you do, turns out the squirrels are arriving around 5am, and there was one on the trunk when I was watching the first come in, but I never saw it!!!

There were also squirrels on the feeder up till 8pm which I was quite surprised at.

Then because it was lovely and cool in the woods and I wasn't going into work I thought I'd take a peak at the other feeder, I mean it's been 2 days😃 a squirrel went up the tree and they've been chucking feed about,  there had been a lot of birds around all morning,  but there were Chaffinches and Gold Finches on the floor in the seed with a woodpecker above them. 

 

A squirrel appeared but didn't go on the feeder, then a bit later as I was unwrapping a mint another turned up, straight up onto the feeder, paused looking in my direction PFFT WHACK down he went.

Another male.

so four for the morning,  and I was glad to get out.

 

[arjimlad]

@Mice! Great shooting and write up 👍

[Mice!]

11 hours ago, arjimlad said:

@Mice! Great shooting and write up 👍

Cheers 👍 

[Mice!]

We were out yesterday walking in woodland and the greys were on the beech mast and probably the young acorns, always clear shots when you don't have the rifle.

[sam triple]

2 hours ago, Mice! said:

We were out yesterday walking in woodland and the greys were on the beech mast and probably the young acorns, always clear shots when you don't have the rifle.

My feeders have hardly been touched the last few weeks , too much natural about at the mo , loads of beach trees in the wood and wheat in the fields 

[old man]

Out this morning ,sitting by 0700.

The first went into the usual brambles from the feeder tree, the second was a breeding boar rooting the tree base and the final one is still jammed up in a tree fork waiting for the buzzards.

Feeders half emptied but no interest shown by the fallen.

[ratchers]

Apart from a grey that run out in front of my car,I have seen no greys until today when I went to the farm to check the feeding box and lo and behold there was two running around but they never came back for an ambush,still the box is getting used so I'll be back.

[Mice!]

We've just been out on our bikes to the local big park, lots of big beech trees and all had beech mast covering the ground. 

I couldn't face the woods this week,  there was no way I was putting on my over trousers and wellies, far far to hot, today is so much cooler and nicer. 

[Walker570]

They have been very thin on the ground here also.

[Sciurus]

2 hours ago, Mice! said:

I couldn't face the woods this week,  there was no way I was putting on my over trousers and wellies, far far to hot, today is so much cooler and nicer. 

Do you think a dab of Deet around the trouser bottoms will do away with the need for over trousers and wellies? Even baler twine or bike clips has to be better protection than sweating to death wearing wellies in hot weather!

Squirrels are very patchy round here. Some houses are very successful at catching whole families and then the odd interlopers. Yet  My other regular houses just can’t get them. For example, I have four traps in 4 gardens in a 50 yard radius just to get a pair of troublesome greys - All linked by a dry stone wall, but I can’t catch them, yet in the next road, linked by the same wall, a pair of houses have had about 15 in the last 6 weeks. All using the same bait. Can’t explain it, but You can’t win them all!

Nearly all catches are male.  Not many are being shot at the moment- too many tourists.