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Found a free source of wheat and have been using it on my main feeder.

I observed that is less attractive than peanuts but it keeps them visiting when I am unable to attend. 

Last night I topped up with peanuts and this morning.....happy days 4 greys in half an hour and in the meantime I had the pleasure of  watching numerous Nuthatches and other small birds feeding.

A Jay also turned up for its final breakfast.

 

Edited by Robertt
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10 minutes ago, Robertt said:

Found a free source of wheat and have been using it on my main feeder.

I observed that is less attractive than peanuts but it keeps them visiting when I am unable to attend. 

Last night I topped up with peanuts and this morning.....happy days 4 greys in half an hour and in the meantime I had the pleasure of  watching numerous Nuthatches and other small birds feeding.

A Jay also turned up for its final breakfast.

 

Make up a mixture. I use a mix of kibbled and whole maize, mixed corn and peanuts, laced with aniseed, about 25% of each with great success and it keeps down the cost a bit. You could cut it 75% wheat and 25% peanuts and I am sure it would be acceptable. They take just that bit longer to sit up nicely and knibble a peanut instead of bobbing up and down to get another wheat grain.

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Thank you for your recipe Walker.

Am too busy to make it up presently so will supply my hungary customers neat peatnuts for the time being.

I don't mind shelling out for the nuts and to be fair everytime I bump into the landowner in the local, he reimburses me with lashings of beer.

 A win, win situation 👍

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1 hour ago, Robertt said:

Thank you for your recipe Walker.

Am too busy to make it up presently so will supply my hungary customers neat peatnuts for the time being.

I don't mind shelling out for the nuts and to be fair everytime I bump into the landowner in the local, he reimburses me with lashings of beer.

 A win, win situation 👍

Let's you shoot squirrels and gets the ale in, winner winner 

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9 hours ago, Robertt said:

Found a free source of wheat and have been using it on my main feeder.

I observed that is less attractive than peanuts but it keeps them visiting when I am unable to attend. 

Last night I topped up with peanuts and this morning.....happy days 4 greys in half an hour and in the meantime I had the pleasure of  watching numerous Nuthatches and other small birds feeding.

A Jay also turned up for its final breakfast.

 

Robert, yes we use wheat in the bottom of glass jars in the flip top feeders, they go through the peanuts on the top in two or three days. The wheat just keeps them interested and they are soon back on the feeders after they are topped up with peanuts. The key is to keep at em! If you allow the populations to rise then it is difficult to keep the feeders full but shooting once or twice a week and it keeps the numbers down. We are not in the business of breeding large numbers of greys for sport shooting we are there to reduce/ remove the grey populations 

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On 11/01/2020 at 06:16, Longbower said:

Walker,  as for the 'infertile' squirrel gene, its a step in the right direction, IF the authorities sanction it . Anything to help the Reds is good.

It's surprising how fast these things spread. (95% of the rabbit population has disappeared from Cheshire in 5 years , due to RHD2).

I don't like the idea of this fertility gene messing,  who is paying for it? How long before it crosses to the reds?

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On 11/01/2020 at 06:16, Longbower said:

Walker,  as for the 'infertile' squirrel gene, its a step in the right direction, IF the authorities sanction it . Anything to help the Reds is good.

It's surprising how fast these things spread. (95% of the rabbit population has disappeared from Cheshire in 5 years , due to RHD2).

Yes fully agree and hope it works.  Obviously first place to introduce would be the interaction greys and reds.

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On 12/01/2020 at 00:19, Robertt said:

Fisher.

I am not shooting for sport but control.

I'm not sure what you mean?

I'm just agreeing with you, there are some who use large feeders and just shoot occasionally which is not really doing the job, I know you don't work like that.

15 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Yes fully agree and hope it works.  Obviously first place to introduce would be the interaction greys and reds.

If it works it will be a great step forward. As I understand it to be gene work and not a disease it will not be like those rabbit diseases. 👍 I see this as likely to be far more effective than the sterilisation plan, which is really going nowhere 

 

 

 

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Nuthatches.

I stack the ledge on the feeder then go home and have some brekky.

I turn up an hour later and by that time the small birds are pinching the nuts off the ledge.

Rightly or wrongly,  I think the bird activity  is a dinner bell for the greys. Also its a bit of entertainment for me between squirrels. 

The other day a Nuthatch took a nut and landed on the side of a tree about 10 feet away.

It then stuck the nut in the crevice in the bark and hammered it in. Another one turned up and a scrap ensued and 

the second bird stole the nut and did one.

Never seen this before  but on researcing it, they store 90% of what they take and derive there name from the way they hammer the nut into crevices etc.

Never too old to learn. 👍

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Cracking little bird and one of the joys of sitting up waiting for Mr Tree Rat. I'm pretty certain that the small bird activity around a feeder act as decoys and that is why I have 1/4 inch holes drilled in the front of mine so they can come help themselves.  I have one hen pheasant that has learned to lift the lid and I crack up because she always has a long look around before doing so as if to not let on that she has this private stash.  Had birds land on my Silencer many times.

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2 hours ago, Robertt said:

Nuthatches.

I stack the ledge on the feeder then go home and have some brekky.

I turn up an hour later and by that time the small birds are pinching the nuts off the ledge.

Rightly or wrongly,  I think the bird activity  is a dinner bell for the greys. Also its a bit of entertainment for me between squirrels.

One of my favourite birds, when two males turn up in the garden it's like aerial combat as they shoot off.

13 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

I think that Bucks County Council may already be trying this contraception based idea - most of their parks seem to have Condoms hanging in the Trees.

Hook line and sinker 

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Usually have a couple of Nuthatch and a Tree Creeper along with two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and a bunch of Blue Tits to watch while waiting for the Squirrels, they provides welcome amusement. Last year a Hawk (too fast to identify) hit a Blue Tit near  to the feeder so hard I didn't see the impact but heard it from among the cloud of feathers it created.Sometimes get the odd Jay visiting..

Love being out among the wildlife, it's more than a bonus.

My feeders are basically 4 or 5" diameter  drainpipe with a domed base of 1/4" mesh which the birds can feed freely from but cannot take whole peanuts. They and the Squirrels (when they hopefully soon decide to feed in numbers) are kept occupied for a while when feeding at the station. 

Edited by Good shot?
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I haven't said much lately because I haven't been out, I got fed up turning up to empty feeders so thought right I'll make a bigger one, I think a feeder needs to stay full for at least a week. That way you keep the squirrels coming to a regular food source and they turn up when you want to shoot @bruno22rf sounds like the ideal scenario,  having someone top up and tell you which feeders are being used most so you know which area to shoot.

So I built a bigger feeder and was then told I couldn't put it up, we had to carry on doing things the same way, so I quit.

Well my bigger feeder has been up for three weeks now, I went out last week with the Rapid7 and had a squirrel wave its tail at me for 10-15 minutes before it wandered off, it was on the deck and this wood is such a mess of fallen timber I could see the feeder but not the ground beneath it,  I set up another position to shoot from, site lines are terrible because of the growth but this second position means I'm barely in the wood so minimum disturbance. 

I checked the feeder Wednesday and it was just about empty,  taken around 2 weeks which is perfect,  topped it up with the intention of shooting it this morning before we're all quarantined. 

Woke up to frost and blue skies, perfect. 

I arrived at the wood at 8:20 I know people say to be in position before day light but I don't think the squirrels like the cold morning's anymore than I do.

I was shooting from the second position today,  the sun is on my left hand side and I'm looking up the slope at the feeder, not ideal again because to the right of the feeder it's open which gives a bit of glare in the scope but its manageable.

Lots of bird activity around, great tits and coal tits, pigeons magpies crows and a buzzard, a lovely fresh quiet morning. 

Then I see a  squirrel and it's on the floor moving towards my feeder, I can see its tail meerkat fashion obviously going through the bits on the floor, ten minutes of it showing me its bum hole and tail,  and every time it was likely to give me a shot, a branch was in the way!! I've done some serious stomping of branches now so hopefully its clearer now.

Then finally "it" jumps up onto the tree then the feeder, it was massive, in and out of the flip top, it stayed in for so long at one point I thought it was stuck, then it sat up side on because the platform makes it sit that way, its paws holding something its nibbling at, stop breathing and squeeze the trigger. 

CRACK!!! Flop, the squirrel is down,  the R10 has spoken,  her first time out, shooting JSB exacts 4.52 I haven't managed my pellet testing yet but

20200308_181907.jpg.4126fc8b0cf8df042d133cec65c7c758.jpg

That will do for now.

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I brought him home and weighed him 1lb 11oz I was convinced it was a pregnant female when I saw him on the feeder, just the one but it made my day and the land owner was happy as well, hopefully the first of many.

@Sciurus my first south lakes squirrel 👍

 

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Like it. The one I had this morning was massive as well. A big old buck. Had one a couple of weeks ago. Set up on my stool and loaded rifle but nothing showing . I then heard a tink tink!! and looked at the feeder and the lid was going up and down making the noise. Eventually after about two minutes the tree rat emerged and sat on the killing table and the rim fire did it's job. It was obviously in there all the time I was setting up and this is a spot where I don't have a permanent blind I just sit at the base of a tree with a few scrubby branches infront as cover.

Had the big buck this morning which i saw come in and vanish behind the tree, then peep around the trunk just above the feeder.... settled the crosshairs between it's eyes and job done.

I just love this new Browning T bolt seriously accurate.

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10 hours ago, Mice! said:

 

I brought him home and weighed him 1lb 11oz I was convinced it was a pregnant female when I saw him on the feeder, just the one but it made my day and the land owner was happy as well, hopefully the first of many.

@Sciurus my first south lakes squirrel 👍

 

Great to see you’ve go your permission in South Lakes. Squirrel burgers tonight! 🤔

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On 08/01/2020 at 23:19, Longbower said:

I read in the papers there is a Scientist in Scotland (cloned dolly the sheep), who is proposing to genetically modify male grey squirrels, to breed females that are unable to reproduce.     Then release them at different locations across the country.

Over the Christmas break , we once again visited the Wirral , taking the dogs for a walk in Eastham Country Park.

My goodness the grey's were everywhere, hundreds of them , within feet of the public.  So I have written to the Council , pointing out the fact that the peninsular is surrounded on 3 sides by water , so there is an excellent opportunity to introduce grey squirrel control.

I also pointed out that if Native Red Squirrels could be re introduced, there could be great tourism potential.

I await a reply.

My understanding is that the females would continue breeding but only produce male off spring. The model would show that by releasing a few hundred gm modified males within a decade the breeding population of greys would be finished. Time will tell.

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