Day out Yesterday

[BLACKBOB 9]

Up at 3.30am yesterday for a 90 mile trip to some permission i hold in North / West Wales. It was quite a cool grey start to the day and we loaded the van up with the two lurchers, two terriers and the shottie.

 

We have done quite a bit of lamping there over the years, but never really had a good mooch about in the day. So our main object was to do a search of the area to locate any earths which may be holding, as we knew from lamping that there are allot of foxes about there. The only problem was that the three farms boarder onto a large natural wood of about 25 acres, but we dont have permission on the fourth farm.

 

Anyway we got there at about 6.30am and the weather was starting to improve broken cloud and blue sky. The area had torrential rain the day before and the rivers were nearly bursting their banks. The ground was very waterlogged as we started our reccy of the woods and the ground cover was quite dense. We covered a large area of the woods and located quite a few earths which were not in use, also quite a few which were actually full of water. There were a number of badger sets in the woods, which came as a bit of a surprise as ive never seen one down there, day or at night. They were well used and they probably never need to leave the wood as its so large and fruitful. As we exited the wood on the other side we tried one of the terriers on a small three hole fox earth by the side of a fast flowing brook. The terrier started baying after a couple of minutes and we got a mark of three foot and we started to dig. I pointed out to my mate that it looked as if it had been dug before and in-filled but we dug anyway.

 

As he broke through, a two rabbits bolted one of them across the field, both lurchers took off and my beddy x picked it up. The terrier had pushed the rabbits into a tight spot and was digging on to them, the rabbits must have moved in after it was dug previously, so we quickly filled it in and moved on.

 

It was now about 10.30 and we set off back to the van for a cuppa and to move over to the other farm for a look around the other side of the wood. On our way we heard a quad bike heading out way, i could see it was the woman from the other farm that we have,nt got permission on, so i decided to walk up the field to see her. She was picking field mushrooms and when she saw me walking up with my shot gun on my shoulder she apologized and said sorry if i disturbed your shooting with my quad. I was taken back a bit so i explained to her that i had permission on the neighbours farm but not on hers so i was just enquiring. She was very polite and asked that we don,t hunt on her land as they have a pheasant shoot and did,nt want the birds disturbed, i thought fcuk i should have said nothing. I thanked her and headed back to the boundary, But it was nice to know that they had a pheasant shoot as that might come in handy one day.

 

We were nearing the farm where we had parked and noticed a small earth at the base of a tree on a banked hedge, my mate stayed one side with the lurchers and i was on the other side. The terrier entered but quickly came out my side and headed at speed down the hedgerow on a strong scent, as he crashed through the cover a rabbit bolted my side across the field and headed for the other hedge, i gave it some distance 40yrds and took it out with the shottie, had to give it some as i had a magnum cartridge in for the fox

 

A cup of tea or two with the farmer was never more enjoyable as it was now 100 degrees, lovely blue sky and us all dressed as if it was monsoon season, which was yesterday.

 

So we headed for the other farm, on arriving we decided which part of the wood we were going to check out as it was now heading to midday and we wanted to be leaving about 2pm. Above us circled the biggest Red Kite i had ever seen, using the thermals off the woods to gain height. We checked the top area of the woods and found nothing apart from a badger set, again very used. This earth was in the field, without any cover other than grass and the mess they had made on this lush pasture land, probably upset the farmer somewhat. Anyway we checked the wood all the way back to the farmhouse without much to report. We decided to check one last area before calling it a day, we were walking through a large field which consisted of grazing and bull rush with one fine looking hunter in there ( not me a horse ).

The lurchers were walking with us unleashed as we approached the wood. I thought now was a good time to phone my good lady as id not spoken to her since last night. My mate walked on in front of me and i stopped at a fence which we had to cross to phone.

 

The dogs had gone ahead with him and i was conversing with her indoors when all hell broke loose, i could hear my mate shouting " they,re on" and all i could see was rushes moving, i said to the misses "excuse me but i cant continue with this conversation as i am otherwise engaged" or words to that effect and legged it to the dogs. It was all over. They had stumbled across two 3/4 grown cubs sunning themselves in the rushes and had a superb course through the rush, out into the open and back into the rush again. Both making contact with the cubs and bringing the pheasant killers demise. I had been up since 3.30am walked for about 6hrs, roasted in the heat, very hungry by now and missed the whole bloody thing because i thought id phone her indoors. F**king gutted.

 

So it was job done for today and off to the pub for some lunch on the way home. Walking back we could hear pheasants

calling and put up a trio of mallard ducks off a swollen puddle. it was nice to see and i thought il have you buggers before long My mate was very handy with the camera and did manage to take a few shots of the dogs so it was,nt all bad.

 

Sorry if i bored you with this one but i thoroughly enjoyed the day and look forward to the next trip there.

 

 

cheers bob

[jultaylor1972 2]

Sounds like a great day, shame you missed all the action though!

[Sorley x 32]

Nice read, sounds like an enjoyable day out.

 

Maybe leave the phone in the car though

[Guest SJM]

Nice post, enjoyed reading that

[Scallywag 78]

Really enjoyed that, be nice to see your mate's photos.

[tote 870]

Thanks for sharing your day with us Bob

[Guest FOXDOG]

Sounds like a good day bob well done

[BLACKBOB 9]

Cheers lads had a great day, cant post pics as my mate is not online, so il take my own camera next time and hopefully get some good shots.

 

As for the phone

 

 

Cheers bob