gobsmacked again

[Guest hyperion]

i met up with justin at the farm at nine last night to try for the fox thats been taking the rabbits out of my snares!

 

by half ten we had covered over half the farm, driving some parts of it twice with out seeing hide nor hair of a fox we decided to try the two fields on the other side of the road, as we pulled into the first field we could see loads of rabbits out and about but again no fox until we were heading back on our selfs up the hedge line to the road gate when i caught a flash of eyes in the next field along!

 

"FOX" i said, where, "over there just gone into the hedge", i cant see him, "thats cos hes just gone into the hedge", well i cant shoot him if i cant see him!

 

so i turned the landrover round and drove back down the hedge line and parked up in a gap with a good veiw of where id last seen the fox and tried squeaking him, after twenty minutes or so i skanned the lamp round and picked him up about three hundred yards away just sat watching us half way up the hill in the wheat field, more squeaking, but he wouldnt move, just his head showing above the wheat and justin was unwilling to take a shot at a half seen fox!

 

normally i wouldnt dare take the landrover into the wheat field as the bottom end is one of the wettest parts of the farm but what with the dry weather and all i decided to drive over and see if we could get on terms with our quarry!

 

we pulled through the gate and drove slowly up the head land towards where the fox had been sitting, about half way across we stopped and shone the lamp round the field but instead of a fox all we could see was rabbits!

 

wall to wall rabbits!, rabbits out feeding, rabbits chasing each other about, rabbits pinging up out of the foot high wheat as thick as fleas on a cat, rabbits all over the place!

 

"shame you didnt bring the .17 justin", he just looked at me and grinned "i did"

 

so we backed off down to the gate way and after a quick scramble to get the .308 away and get set up for the .17hmr we set off back across the rabbit infested field!

 

the next half hour as we made our way up the field was "theres one" BANGTHWACK "another one there" BANGWHOP "stop" BANGWHOP BANGTHWACK BANG THWOCK and so on until we got to the top of the field where we stopped to have a cuppa and give the rabbits time to come back out!

 

after half an hour we were ready to go again this time justin driving and me in the hot seat!

 

every where we shone the lamp a rabbit stuck its head up out of the wheat, quickly followed by BANGTHWACK!

 

we stopped counting at twenty five and just concentrated on getting lead on target, at one point we were just parked up at the top of the hill justin on the lamp and me leaning on the bonnet picking off the bunnies as fast as i could aim fire and reload!

 

we probably could have gone round a couple of more times but by the time we got back to the bottom of the field it was knocking on half one and finding the slain in the crop was going to be quite a job so we decided to pick up as many as we could and call it a night!

 

walking back up the field we picked thirty odd rabbits and i went back up there this morning with the dog and watched the fox we had seen the night before carrying off a couple before making my way over an picking up a further twelve, though im sure we didnt find them all and the foxes must have had a few as in the early hours as well!

 

what got me about last night was the shear numbers of rabbits on the ground, i knew they were there but id no idea there were so many!

looks like we will have to be back up there again in a couple of days time for some more pest control before the crop gets too long to see the bunnies!

 

and one day ill remember to take some pictures!

 

cheers

hyperion

[westwicklow 4]

good story, well told.

[SNAP SHOT 194]

nice one.......

[The one 8,598]

Nice read only matter of time before you get that fox