squirrel control

[Fisheruk]

53 minutes ago, Sciurus said:

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.

 

IMHO deet  will not stop ticks and the land @Mice! Shoots has a serious tick burden. I’d stick with the wellies, particularly as it’s cooled off a lot.

[Sciurus]

14 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

IMHO deet  will not stop ticks and the land @Mice! Shoots has a serious tick burden. I’d stick with the wellies, particularly as it’s cooled off a lot.

David - a quick search of the internet on the effectiveness of deet on ticks would suggest otherwise.

Ticks are everywhere in the Lakes even in the gardens. Walking through bracken won’t stop ticks dropping into your wellies!

[Fisheruk]

1 minute ago, Sciurus said:

David - a quick search of the internet on the effectiveness of deet on ticks would suggest otherwise.

Ticks are everywhere in the Lakes even in the gardens. Walking through bracken won’t stop ticks dropping into your wellies!

I still prefer my wellies. I use the neoprene dirt boots and haven’t had a tick on me for years. I only go out In the early morning and in woodland so it’s still pretty cool. In my clothing the only thing I change is the top shirt / fleece/ jacket according to the season. Always keeping my arms covered as much to remain concealed as to protect from mosquitoes. When the mosquitoes are bad I will put deet on my forehead and behind my ears.

[Mice!]

2 hours ago, Sciurus said:

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!

I manage normally mate,  thankfully I only worked Tuesday& Wednesday this week, Tuesday was ridiculously warm in work, you know its bad when the management are buying ice lollies 😅

I'm not even walking in heavy cover, but I quite often find ticks on my trousers when I get back to the car, horrible little things. 

[Mice!]

Well I was out Monday night filling up, it was definitely dark when I left at half ten 🙃 

Back into the wood this morning and there was a squirrel at the feeder, but once again it sloped off, I'm thinking I've got a clever squirrel!!

I spent the next 1.5hrs watching the birds, and 90% were going to the side of the feeder? Not the front?

Usual view.

Side view, not the clearest,  but there's a wee hole!! I had the camera up so it'll be interesting to see if its squirrels or woodpeckers that are doing the damage.

Opposite side! So that feeder is coming in next week for a summer refurb!

So I packed up and moved, and again a squirrel moved off the feeder as I moved up towards it.

I thought I'd have an hour, again the birds were constant,  Nuthatch's,  Robin's,  bluetits,  Chaffinches , Willow tits, blackbirds and Jays, they were certainly advertising the feeder!

Who's that looking at me, looking at him!

He didn't quite come out for a full face picture,  but it's always nice to see something different 😃

It had been a while before I saw any branches bouncing,  I was thinking of calling it time, having seen the movement I waited and the squirrel made its way down to the feeder,  I was very ready,  it took three seeds before setting with something bigger   PFFT WHACK,  And it seemed especially loud for some reason. 

Straight down,  whirled around and done.

Entry below the ear.

Exit, a skinny looking male,but must have been a mature animal with fur missing.

he was left for the fox and that was me heading for work.

lovely morning out in the woods but very quiet, but then it usually is at this time.

[Mice!]

Just checked my camera now, just two squirrels from 530 am onwards,  often only 1, with one using the flip lid, and the other going around the side.
So two to sort!

[sam triple]

Feeders have hardly been touched in 2 weeks now ,!

[Walker570]

The very occasional visitor here and I cleaned out five from the Pear Tree but will ive that a look next week sometime.

Fuel prices have forced me to abandon my trips to Lincolnshire but the keeper there tells me his sone is still knocking them out.

[ratchers]

Well back at the farm where I was last week after scaring two greys off when I went to check on the feeder. Today I sneaked up best as I could to get in position and found that the feeding box was empty, so had to break cover and top the box up, settled back in again to wait. After a while I heard a sound behind me and so stayed very still and amazingly a wren landed on my knee and looked up, a magical moment. Anyway back to the ambush and saw a squirrel on the ground at the base of the box, damn just couldn't get a clear shot, some numpty hadn't cleared nettles out of the way, finally it sat up in a gap and thwack down it went, had to go and check it was dead as I couldn't see it, a young male. Got sat down again with a cuppa for another wait, but not for long as one was on the box,lifted the gun and woah it was off, but its there closer to me now sitting on a log, take aim at its head but the scope is out of focus now due to parallax error so I go for a heart and lung shot which hits the mark but he runs up a tree only to drop dead seconds later,so two in the bag. In for another wait and another grey obliges by sitting on the feeder,take aim and hear the pellet strike,the grey jumps way up in the air off the box, now I don't like it when they do this as sometimes its not a clean shot,still a head shot but not fatal,so am about to get up to investigate when a squirrel runs up the tree with the box on,stops looks up and then goes further up the tree. I wait fifteen minutes to see what happens, nothing so up I gets and find a dead grey squirrel five yards from the tree so it was actually a fourth grey that went up the tree. So three in total which is more than the last two months.

[Fisheruk]

Has anyone else noticed the Beech mast has dried up before properly forming this year. Should mean the squirrels will be back on the feeders a bit earlier.

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Fisheruk

[Mice!]

6 hours ago, ratchers said:

So three in total which is more than the last two months.

Well done fella, low numbers up my way as well.

4 hours ago, Fisheruk said:

Has anyone else noticed the Beech mast has dried up before properly forming this year. Should mean the squirrels will be back on the feeders a bit earlier.

The beech mast I've seen was green healthy and chewed up, must be a local thing?

[Longbower]

It was being dropped on my 'baldy head ' yesterday, by the grey tree rats , way up in the tops .

I only had a rimfire with me though , so left them un molested. 

Back later today with the 20 gauge  though.

[leakyseals]

Finally bagged a juvenile male this morning, the 21st from my garden this year.

The most aggressive one Ive seen in the 2 yeras ive lived here...the pic shows the damage done by it to feeders over the last 2 mornings alone. Never mind, 21 grains of attitude adjustment sorted it out.

A bonus sighting was an adult Sparrowhawk popping into the garden last week and then a juvenile one this morning. Gorgeous birds, but going from the manic alarm calls, the local bird population did not share my joy in seeing them! 

 

[Longbower]

Nothing at our feeders  , not touched.😳 

[old man]

Out today, feeders empty.

Half an hour in a candidate arrived. appearing suddenly from the left to play hide and seek in foliage 10 feet up the feeder tree. His mistake was to leave his upper chest on view. After receiving an AA field he went 30 vertically to crash back down. A breeding boar.

Nothing else seen.

[Walker570]

Very quiet around here. Feeders being used more by song birds than tree rats which I don't mind at all.

Nirmally about now I have two or three attacking my two walnut trees but no sign as yet.

[Mice!]

I've just been out, all three feeders empty, but two can be emptied by the birds.

I'm also seeing a lot of Hazel nuts.

[Mice!]

Two skinny males this morning,  one off the feeder each just had black sunflower seeds in it, and one that was sat up in an oak tree, that dropped a long way.

[sam triple]

Checked feeders for first in 2 weeks hardly touched 🤷‍♀️

[Mice!]

4 hours ago, sam triple said:

Checked feeders for first in 2 weeks hardly touched 🤷‍♀️

Add some molasses 

[old man]

Out, Thursday and sitting by 06.30.

Feeders untouched. No sightings in 4.1/2 hours.

 

[Mice!]

4 hours ago, old man said:

Out, Thursday and sitting by 06.30.

Feeders untouched. No sightings in 4.1/2 hours.

 

Do you not use a camera? Priceless at this time of year. 

I topped up the feeder at strip wood Wednesday night and put up a camera, we all know it's quiet on the squirrels in August plus I've not been to this feeder since the first of June, there are almost no squirrels being seen by the land owners so I just keep dropping in occasionally.

My plan was check the camera this evening, see if it's worth shooting in the morning, not a lot of point sitting at a feeder you know isn't being used.

Well I arrived, walked in without a care and the sun in my eyes, to see a squirrel jump off the floor up the feeder tree, but not very far, then sat watching me twitching it's tail.

As the car was only maybe 50mtrs away it would have been rude to not go and get the gun.
Pop the boot, load a mag, back into the wood and the squirrel is back on the deck, with the sun shining almost right at me!!

It was constantly moving around taking bits of seed, I put some grains and sunflower seeds on the log but the good stuff had gone, I rested on a tree and waited.
It was completely ignoring me, then finally went up onto the feeder, but didn't know how to lift the lid, so messed for a while getting seeds from the gap, each time it leaned head down, fumbled then sat back up on the lid, once, twice, I shot on the third.
Solid WHACK, dropped to the floor and did some leg twitching.
Young male in great condition with unusual colouring, it had looked especially unusual with the evening sun shining at him.

Strange colours on the throat and head.

I then checked the camera and had very few images, only one squirrel showing and more Jays, so with my beers in the car getting warm I decided to head off and give the feeder another couple of weeks.

this is the sunrise that would have greeted me.

[Fisheruk]

17 minutes ago, Mice! said:

Do you not use a camera? Priceless at this time of year. 

I topped up the feeder at strip wood Wednesday night and put up a camera, we all know it's quiet on the squirrels in August plus I've not been to this feeder since the first of June, there are almost no squirrels being seen by the land owners so I just keep dropping in occasionally.

My plan was check the camera this evening, see if it's worth shooting in the morning, not a lot of point sitting at a feeder you know isn't being used.

Well I arrived, walked in without a care and the sun in my eyes, to see a squirrel jump off the floor up the feeder tree, but not very far, then sat watching me twitching it's tail.

As the car was only maybe 50mtrs away it would have been rude to not go and get the gun.
Pop the boot, load a mag, back into the wood and the squirrel is back on the deck, with the sun shining almost right at me!!

It was constantly moving around taking bits of seed, I put some grains and sunflower seeds on the log but the good stuff had gone, I rested on a tree and waited.
It was completely ignoring me, then finally went up onto the feeder, but didn't know how to lift the lid, so messed for a while getting seeds from the gap, each time it leaned head down, fumbled then sat back up on the lid, once, twice, I shot on the third.
Solid WHACK, dropped to the floor and did some leg twitching.
Young male in great condition with unusual colouring, it had looked especially unusual with the evening sun shining at him.

Strange colours on the throat and head.

I then checked the camera and had very few images, only one squirrel showing and more Jays, so with my beers in the car getting warm I decided to head off and give the feeder another couple of weeks.

this is the sunrise that would have greeted me.

Very satisfying 

[Walker570]

It will be interesting this next two weeks because my records show I killed 26 in our little ten acre wood in the next two weeks. We had one yesterday but have not seen any activity to speak of.  My neighbour up the road has knocked a fair few out and I am wondering if our joint efforts have cut the local population.   My two walnut trees are heavy with fruit again this year which usually draws them to their fate.

[Mice!]

2 hours ago, Walker570 said:

It will be interesting this next two weeks because my records show I killed 26 in our little ten acre wood in the next two weeks. We had one yesterday but have not seen any activity to speak of.  My neighbour up the road has knocked a fair few out and I am wondering if our joint efforts have cut the local population.   My two walnut trees are heavy with fruit again this year which usually draws them to their fate.

Looking at the weather on the news last night, I think water will play a part as well Nev, my sister commented on how green my grass was in a photo this week, while around her (down your way) it's brown.

Folk have commented on putting out water near your feeders,  but I wouldn't expect the squirrels to travel far from a food source with water, except for the likes of Walnuts maybe.

Still green and lush oop North though 😁

11 hours ago, Fisheruk said:

Very satisfying 

Saved me getting up early 😃