squirrel control

[sam triple]

8 hours ago, Longbower said:

One of my previously , busiest peanut feeders is still full after a week . And nothing on the camera , so I think I will need to re locate it to another spot in the woods.   Or , persevere ?   

Your thoughts please 

I’d leave it and put another one else where 

[Mice!]

9 hours ago, Longbower said:

One of my previously , busiest peanut feeders is still full after a week . And nothing on the camera , so I think I will need to re locate it to another spot in the woods.   Or , persevere ?   

Your thoughts please 

I take a feeder down once the leaves drop, it seems exposed and was really quiet last winter so I decided I'd take it down this year

[old man]

On 26/12/2021 at 11:31, Walker570 said:

A real damp miserable morning so I decided to go across the the dairy farm and spoil some magpies day.  This is the one where I have the raised permamnent cabin overlooking the yard and a flip top squirrel feeder on an oak tree behind the dry cow shed.    Still dark when I arrived at 7.30 so climbed up and got myself comfy.  The light came up and a maggie flitted down from the shed roof onto the concrete yard...phhhttwop .... No1  stone dead on the yard, so expected to then get others coming in screeching.  Looked to the feeder and there was a tree rat enjoying a peanut  phhhhtwop ....hmmmmm looks like a good morning.  a few minutes later another maggie dropped in and walked over to look at it's pal.  phhhhhtwop and this one danced about and fell in the slurry sump out of sight.   Glanced through the small observation slot towards the fli top and there right below the seat was another tree rat which scurried across the yard and down the bank out of sight, to appear two minutes later climbing up to the flip top.  Let it settle and partially enjoy it's last peanut....phhhhhhhtwop     No. 2 tree rat.  Saw a flick of movement 40yrds away along the slurry pit wall and initially though it was a pheasant but it then appeared  in the open and another maggie. Hmmmm thats a fair shot.....hmmmm first dot down on the scope.....phhhhhhhtwop...and the maggie faltered a feathor two flew and it flew behind the shed not looking at all well.  I was pleased with that one.   I was starting to think about a nice big muffin toasted with dry smoked back bacon and a layer of stilton chees with barbecue sauce and a couple of mugs of strenth six coffeee when another maggie flitted in and started to walk across to it's dead mate. It paised...phhhhhhtwop  No.4.  The bacon muffin was now dragging me out of the cabin and I left happy with 2 tree rats and 4 maggies in just over two hours.

Perfect?

[Walker570]

4 hours ago, sam triple said:

I’d leave it and put another one else where 

Yes agree.  Leave it in place and just sprinkle a few grains out on the front porch for small birds and eventually they will act as decoys.  I often have a flip top go quiet. I just check it occasionally and once it gets used sit on it.  Sometimes you shoot them out in that territory and others then have to realise that at move in.   I have two feeders on a farm I have not visited for two weeks but will do later this week and feel confident in knocking one or two out.

[Mice!]

#8 from the garden today,  I missed him Boxing day,  he was very jittery and has been in and out the garden over the last few days,  stopping and starting without warning,  but he found something the pigeons had missed this morning and sat up nice, where I could get him Whack.

[sam triple]

Another horrible wet day saw me bored as bored could be so I knocked this up , just need to fashion a lid of sorts 

[sam triple]

4 this afternoon in 2.5 hours eerily quite. , Jays screeching plenty of tits etc at the feeder but squirrels were absent it’ll be 2 weeks before I can get up there again 

[Martlandhw100]

All the best squirrel whackers let's keep whacking and stacking in 2022

[Fisheruk]

Starting the New Year as I intend to continue.

A Huge female 800 grms and a male 590 grms.

Both off the woodland feeder.

 

[amateur]

If you haven't added your 2021 kill totals to the 2021 squirrel count in Other Pest Control, please do so and help Walker570 hit his 4000 target

[Mice!]

3 hours ago, Fisheruk said:

Starting the New Year as I intend to continue.

A Huge female 800 grms and a male 590 grms.

Both off the woodland feeder.

 

Makes you wonder where these big critters are coming from?

[Longbower]

I have run out of Squirrels!   Only  Nuthatches and Jays , taking the peanuts from the feeders . 

Not a bushy tail on camera.

[Mice!]

1 hour ago, Longbower said:

I have run out of Squirrels!   Only  Nuthatches and Jays , taking the peanuts from the feeders . 

Not a bushy tail on camera.

Fantastic,  but they'll return. 

[Fisheruk]

Yes, only a single red squirrel this morning, not a grey in sight.

On to a different wood tomorrow morning.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Fisheruk

[old man]

Replaced feeders today after a bit of a break, looking better on entry to the site, 3 running about, roll on Tuesday.

[Walker570]

I whacked 40 off the original flip top at the golf course and things went very quiet before Christmas, even removed the flip top to another location.  Had a spare flip top so last week returned and put it back on the same spot.  Went up this morning and shot five and know two others where about  Just to prove what Mice posted below. Just leave some food and rest them for a couple of weeks and start again.

Handed my first flip top I made to another member on here just starting out on the tree rat whacking, so hoping he has great returns on that. Give him a couple of weeks to get them set and hope to see great returns from him.

9 hours ago, Mice! said:

Fantastic,  but they'll return. 

 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, just as a side note, I don't shoot squirrels only because I don't have that sort of shooting, but with all the Grey's being shot across the UK it must be helping the reds to survive so well done everyone, I cannot remember the last time I saw a red but if only more could be seen like when I was a nipper with woods a plenty from our house and a walnut tree down our back garden just think how good it would be for children today to see the English red squirrel, 

[Fisheruk]

14 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, just as a side note, I don't shoot squirrels only because I don't have that sort of shooting, but with all the Grey's being shot across the UK it must be helping the reds to survive so well done everyone, I cannot remember the last time I saw a red but if only more could be seen like when I was a nipper with woods a plenty from our house and a walnut tree down our back garden just think how good it would be for children today to see the English red squirrel, 

Yes, I quite agree. There’s a two fold purpose in removing the greys. We are fortunate in Lancashire and Merseyside to have a stronghold of Reds in Formby, but they are constantly under threat from contracting Squirrel Pox when greys get into their areas. There’s a small local group who run a trap loan scheme to remove greys from peoples gardens in the stronghold areas when the greys are spotted. Also there are a number of volunteers who have a passion to remove greys from the wider areas beyond the stronghold area and as a result it gives space for the Reds to naturally spread out into new territory by way of their natural dispersal after breeding. I live in a village next to Rufford in West Lancashire a good 10 miles from the stronghold. We now have a breeding population of Reds here and occasional sightings further afield. More and more people are getting involved in removing the greys as they realise the benefits to Red squirrels and wildlife in general by removing greys from these areas and I am getting more people contacting me to receive loan traps to remove the grey squirrels from their gardens. 
Apart from the the obvious advantages to wildlife and Red Squirrels by removing greys there is another important purpose which is to prevent damage to trees. Last year I was introduced to a man who had purchased 100 acres of land 20 years ago, ahead of his retirement to plant a conservation wood. He planted 20000 English native trees to supplement the existing trees on the land. As trees now reach the age of 20years they become of interest to grey squirrels, particularly in April/ May when the squirrels bark strip, which damages and sometimes kills the trees. Since March 2021 when I started grey control in that wood we have removed 107 grey squirrels from that wood alone. It’s only a few miles from the Rufford Red Squirrels and a Red Squirrel has been seen in this private conservation wood, so the hope is that the Reds will establish in that wood and then eventually move out even further, but it is constant attrition which is necessary because as @Mice!has said previously when you think you have cleared an area of greys they will move in from neighbouring areas and within a few weeks there will be new ones present. That doesn’t really matter because it means you will be reducing the grey population from a much wider area. 

 

 

 

 

[oldypigeonpopper]

3 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

Yes, I quite agree. There’s a two fold purpose in removing the greys. We are fortunate in Lancashire and Merseyside to have a stronghold of Reds in Formby, but they are constantly under threat from contracting Squirrel Pox when greys get into their areas. There’s a small local group who run a trap loan scheme to remove greys from peoples gardens in the stronghold areas when the greys are spotted. Also there are a number of volunteers who have a passion to remove greys from the wider areas beyond the stronghold area and as a result it gives space for the Reds to naturally spread out into new territory by way of their natural dispersal after breeding. I live in a village next to Rufford in West Lancashire a good 10 miles from the stronghold. We now have a breeding population of Reds here and occasional sightings further afield. More and more people are getting involved in removing the greys as they realise the benefits to Red squirrels and wildlife in general by removing greys from these areas and I am getting more people contacting me to receive loan traps to remove the grey squirrels from their gardens. 
Apart from the the obvious advantages to wildlife and Red Squirrels by removing greys there is another important purpose which is to prevent damage to trees. Last year I was introduced to a man who had purchased 100 acres of land 20 years ago, ahead of his retirement to plant a conservation wood. He planted 20000 English native trees to supplement the existing trees on the land. As trees now reach the age of 20years they become of interest to grey squirrels, particularly in April/ May when the squirrels bark strip, which damages and sometimes kills the trees. Since March 2021 when I started grey control in that wood we have removed 107 grey squirrels from that wood alone. It’s only a few miles from the Rufford Red Squirrels and a Red Squirrel has been seen in this private conservation wood, so the hope is that the Reds will establish in that wood and then eventually move out even further, but it is constant attrition which is necessary because as @Mice!has said previously when you think you have cleared an area of greys they will move in from neighbouring areas and within a few weeks there will be new ones present. That doesn’t really matter because it means you will be reducing the grey population from a much wider area. 

 

 

 

 

Hello, thanks for posting, let's hope 2022 is a better year for the reds oh and us to, 👍

[Walker570]

18 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

Yes, I quite agree. There’s a two fold purpose in removing the greys. We are fortunate in Lancashire and Merseyside to have a stronghold of Reds in Formby, but they are constantly under threat from contracting Squirrel Pox when greys get into their areas. There’s a small local group who run a trap loan scheme to remove greys from peoples gardens in the stronghold areas when the greys are spotted. Also there are a number of volunteers who have a passion to remove greys from the wider areas beyond the stronghold area and as a result it gives space for the Reds to naturally spread out into new territory by way of their natural dispersal after breeding. I live in a village next to Rufford in West Lancashire a good 10 miles from the stronghold. We now have a breeding population of Reds here and occasional sightings further afield. More and more people are getting involved in removing the greys as they realise the benefits to Red squirrels and wildlife in general by removing greys from these areas and I am getting more people contacting me to receive loan traps to remove the grey squirrels from their gardens. 
Apart from the the obvious advantages to wildlife and Red Squirrels by removing greys there is another important purpose which is to prevent damage to trees. Last year I was introduced to a man who had purchased 100 acres of land 20 years ago, ahead of his retirement to plant a conservation wood. He planted 20000 English native trees to supplement the existing trees on the land. As trees now reach the age of 20years they become of interest to grey squirrels, particularly in April/ May when the squirrels bark strip, which damages and sometimes kills the trees. Since March 2021 when I started grey control in that wood we have removed 107 grey squirrels from that wood alone. It’s only a few miles from the Rufford Red Squirrels and a Red Squirrel has been seen in this private conservation wood, so the hope is that the Reds will establish in that wood and then eventually move out even further, but it is constant attrition which is necessary because as @Mice!has said previously when you think you have cleared an area of greys they will move in from neighbouring areas and within a few weeks there will be new ones present. That doesn’t really matter because it means you will be reducing the grey population from a much wider area. 

 

 

 

 

Brilliant write up. Great pity the likes of the National Trust don't take an interest. Calke Abbey park near me is running with them and nobody makes any effort to thin them out.

On the one or two places I shoot I notice that you remove the residents and then withing about six to eight weeks you can hit them again...example my five shot at the golf course yesterday. What I do notice however is that the numbers do lessen at each layer of removal. Keep whacking and stacking and most importantly...talk about it.... It is a subject either I or my wife will raise in the gun bus in between drives for instance and also at dinner parties or get togethers.  There always will be the devout fluffy lovers but I have picked up a couple of killing areas just on these conversations.

[Goldfish]

7 hours ago, Fisheruk said:

Yes, I quite agree. There’s a two fold purpose in removing the greys. We are fortunate in Lancashire and Merseyside to have a stronghold of Reds in Formby, but they are constantly under threat from contracting Squirrel Pox when greys get into their areas. There’s a small local group who run a trap loan scheme to remove greys from peoples gardens in the stronghold areas when the greys are spotted. Also there are a number of volunteers who have a passion to remove greys from the wider areas beyond the stronghold area and as a result it gives space for the Reds to naturally spread out into new territory by way of their natural dispersal after breeding. I live in a village next to Rufford in West Lancashire a good 10 miles from the stronghold. We now have a breeding population of Reds here and occasional sightings further afield. More and more people are getting involved in removing the greys as they realise the benefits to Red squirrels and wildlife in general by removing greys from these areas and I am getting more people contacting me to receive loan traps to remove the grey squirrels from their gardens. 
Apart from the the obvious advantages to wildlife and Red Squirrels by removing greys there is another important purpose which is to prevent damage to trees. Last year I was introduced to a man who had purchased 100 acres of land 20 years ago, ahead of his retirement to plant a conservation wood. He planted 20000 English native trees to supplement the existing trees on the land. As trees now reach the age of 20years they become of interest to grey squirrels, particularly in April/ May when the squirrels bark strip, which damages and sometimes kills the trees. Since March 2021 when I started grey control in that wood we have removed 107 grey squirrels from that wood alone. It’s only a few miles from the Rufford Red Squirrels and a Red Squirrel has been seen in this private conservation wood, so the hope is that the Reds will establish in that wood and then eventually move out even further, but it is constant attrition which is necessary because as @Mice!has said previously when you think you have cleared an area of greys they will move in from neighbouring areas and within a few weeks there will be new ones present. That doesn’t really matter because it means you will be reducing the grey population from a much wider area. 

 

 

 

 

@Fisheruk A great insight into why we do this, In my area I take greys to protect trees, people forget that trees are a crop and need protecting from deer and squirrels to be a valid worthwhile crop. I hope one day reds will be able to return but it may be a few years until that can happen, but I live in hope.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Goldfish

[Sciurus]

@Walker570 Thankfully Up in the Lakes, NT are very big landowners and are very supportive to the local red squirrel groups. The only downside is their properties and woods are also very popular with the public- footpaths everywhere...

They get a big thumbs up from me!

[Walker570]

Good to hear that.  They stopped all shooting apart from the park culls down here.

[old man]

Out this morning 08.50 start, 3 degrees.

The usual 1 bolted on my arrival in the car. At 10.05 one appeared out of now where (probably a hole) towards the crown of a nearby old beech to depart for the horizon in the tree tops, sure it didn't spot me. 11.09 i nervously approached in the trees to 25 yards towards a pheasant feeder. It fell into a holly/bramble thicket as a snack for the night cleaners after the 200 did it's bit. Sunny but cold at the end.

[Longbower]

I thought , you might find this amusing , if I can get the photo to load .!