Better late than never

[shovel leaner 7,650]

Well they started combining the wheat yesterday and it looks like they will finish most of it this evening. Things have been a bit quiet on the foxing front for me . I knocked the snaring on the head a while back as I got fed up checking them for nothing. I hadnt smelled or seen a fox or had any interference with the birds , everything is settled and peaceful in pheasant world. Just how I like it . Some new people moved into one of the estate properties, former city dwellers, looking for the rural “ good life “ . One of the first thing people who move onto the estate do is get some chickens. I was having a natter and mentioned that if they saw a fox about to let me know . Well they flagged me down on Thursday and told me they had smelled a fox by the chicken house . So that evening acting on this new intelligence I set up the Icotec in the field behind the cottage and tucked up out of the way . It didn’t take long for the Pheasant distress call to work and a 3/4 grown dog fox trotted over and I accounted for my first fox in what seems an age . Friday morning and I’m out feeding , and the birds weren’t on the feed ride by this one particular pen and a jay was chattering and screeching and I knew a fox was about , then as I neared the pen I saw a puff of feathers....b*****d !!! I’ve got a pal who is a keen fox shot and I gave him a call , “ you know you said if I had a problem to give you a call “ , and so it was that Shaun came over to sit out by the pen as I go on my rounds checking all the pens / electric fencers and make sure the birds are all tucked in for the night with their favourite story and a mug of ovaltine . I got to the last pen and got a text message to say Shaun had got the culprit, another 3/4 grown dog , “well done Shaun “. So the time I’ve been waiting for has arrived....harvest , and the signs are looking good , I got a call from the guy who drives the combine to tell me he has foxes running about in the wheat and to get my arse over there with a shotgun , well I was just having my Sunday dinner so that didn’t happen , so I will be out tonight. I will let you know how I get on , photos and write up to follow, I hope I haven’t jinxed it by making promises I can’t keep !! 

[David.evans 5,323]

Go get em SL 

Im sure you won’t come home empty handed 

good luck  

atb 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Get them down.

Well done your friend. I use to do the same.

We use to call the quad a dinner gong for Charlie, as soon as it was gone Charlie would move in.

Excellent work.

I have some fresh cut grass where I been leaving a pigeon or two. Last I checked there was feathers just like Charlie leaves them. "I'll be back".

[shovel leaner 7,650]

That’s just it sausage, foxes can be stupid, but they aren’t that stupid , they are aware of my comings and going’s. I just did my rounds as usual and it wasn’t long after I’d been around that he showed. I can’t stress how important it is to have a bit of help now and again. It really is appreciated by me . 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Lol. Just heard a funny tale.... A local estate has a strange keeper. I use to help him fox wise but he was so miserable I came off, that was years ago. He is an isolationist.

Any way the badger men have just done a survey at night for a look see etc. They saw two badgers ( not surprising considering the ground is so hard) but wait for it.....drum roll.......32 fox's!!

Muppet.

[shovel leaner 7,650]

As promised , a little write up for you all . The combine and trailers and bailers worked on till about 9.0 pm . I sat next to one of the pens till it got dark but nothing showed. There is a Cider festival locally which started off life as a small festival where there were a few local bands played and people drank local cider , well now it’s become massive and extremely noisy. So last night SL conducted his foxing session whilst having my ears assaulted by the likes of “Dizzy Rascal” , ( he’s a rapper sausage dog ) . Anyway I managed to shoot two . I just drove around the newly cut fields spotting with my thermal, I spotted the first as I entered a  field , I swung the mule around, bipod out NV on IR on and into position and he’s still there , simple as that , no more than 50 meters . It was led down in a tramline and facing me so I shot it in the head , I normally like to shoot them side on in the chest but I figured this one thought he was invisible and if I chanced my arm too much he would be off . I saw another and couldn’t shoot it as there were houses directly behind it , he’ll do another night . I did another lap of the fields and saw nothing else then as I was about to call it a night I saw something move behind a bale , I stopped and scanned again and waited and Charlie appeared behind the bale oblivious to my presence and seemed to have found something to eat . A bit of a longer shot this time , I used my range finder after and it was 124  meters and my bullet placement was a bit high which needs checking. There is still a lot of straw lying in rows which make the job a bit difficult, that won’t be around much longer and there are a couple more fields to cut, so I will be out again maybe tonight. On a different note I was out this morning on the stubbles and saw a brood of wild pheasant I counted 4 that I cold see , I wonder if they will make it , they are small and late ? Who knows but the odds are stacked against them. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by shovel leaner

[Stavross 18,529]

Good job, we still had standing wheat on the shoot before the weekend, hopefully it will be down now, so we can get at the remainder of the gingers around the farm, we also have a few wildie’s around the farm but as you say the odds are stacked against them, once the crops down they get bothered by everything from raptors to the bloody farm cat

[shovel leaner 7,650]

You are right there . Looking at them though , they are so different from the poults of that age you see in the sheds , their feathering and colour , so different,  due to the unnatural high protein diet artificial heat and close proximity to other birds . But it’s almost like a different species. 

[shovel leaner 7,650]

Just flattered this old cock bird . He’s been calling my poults away from home for a while now , but because of the wheat I’ve not been able to see him . But there he was this morning with his little band of truants. He didn’t like my 55grain Vmax . 243  though , nearly turned it inside out. He was of course injured and I was putting him out of his misery.

Edited August 26, 2019 by shovel leaner

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Good work mate.

I checked my grass field, nothing when I was there.

A rapper?? Sweet wrapper you mean?

[Sausagedog 7,381]

4 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

Just flattered this old cock bird . He’s been calling my poults away from home for a while now , but because of the wheat I’ve not been able to see him . But there he was this morning with his little band of truants. He didn’t like my 55grain Vmax . 243  though , nearly turned it inside out. 

Yep, to many cocks can be disruptive. I don't mind them but on a shoot it's different.

[Stavross 18,529]

15 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

You are right there . Looking at them though , they are so different from the poults of that age you see in the sheds , their feathering and colour , so different,  due to the unnatural high protein diet artificial heat and close proximity to other birds . But it’s almost like a different species. 

The wild poults around the farm are very dark coloured compared to the birds in the pens they also seem a lot more alert and aware of there surroundings, we also had some partridge at the back of one of the sheds this year, I counted 14 young, sadly they haven’t been seen for over a week so I don’t hold much hope for them 

[David.evans 5,323]

The way your knocking over the foxes, I say the pults may we be safe 

atb 

[shovel leaner 7,650]

24 minutes ago, David.evans said:

The way your knocking over the foxes, I say the pults may we be safe 

atb 

It’s not the foxes that will have them , it’s winged pests that’s the problem.

[shovel leaner 7,650]

31 minutes ago, David.evans said:

The way your knocking over the foxes, I say the pults may we be safe 

atb 

It’s not the foxes that will have them , it’s winged pests that’s the problem.