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Pest Control Diary: Foxes in the Snow

Pest Control Diary: Foxes in the Snow

I’m no fair weather hunter; but if anybody thought I was going out in the kind of weather we’ve been getting over the past couple of months - no chance! In my area there have been floods, and it’s impossible to enter any ground with a tractor, let alone my 4x4. Walking the ground as I do would be too hard a slog, not only that but all I have in my armoury is a Tikka all-weather, not a spear gun and flippers! I’ve never known it to be so bad; even the ducks are wearing plastic macks!

BROKEN CHAIN

It’s not just the heavy, continuous downpours, but the longer lasting after effects; for instance worms have been drowned and everybody knows how valuable they are, not just for the soil but as a reliable food source, so that’s one link in the chain broken. The weather is worse than it was a few years ago, when if the rain didn’t kill the ground-nesting birds or eggs the cold did! Vets started to get large numbers of pets through their doors and then the warnings appeared on TV.

At least it’s not nesting time, but no matter what the weather’s like, the fox still has to go out foraging for food, looking for easier and more reliable ways of securing a meal. Either by raiding the farm buildings or becoming bolder and going into town, joining the already booming population of urban foxes. Some of which are forced to stay out longer, giving people a glimpse at something they would not normally see.

WET WEATHER DRILLS

Though I have been out foxing in heavy rain and been successful (or lucky), as everybody knows lamping in the rain reflects the beam back, bringing your field of view right down and when you look through the scope it’s even worse! I find I am more successful sitting it out and waiting for the rain to stop, if it’s heavy that is. But as soon as it does, I have to get out or I will lose the chance, as the fox will be waiting for the very same opportunity, especially after such a long period of heavy rain dodging the weather to secure a meal.

Keeping a close eye on the weather is a must or I risk losing that window of opportunity, as it may only be for one or two nights before the rain comes in again. So, to say it’s been hard trying to dodge the weather and juggle my work commitments would be an understatement! I didn’t really get a break until it snowed, but it didn’t stop until the early hours in the morning, just like rain. Lamping in falling snow would be fruitless, though the following evening looked more promising…

6BR AND GUN LIGHT

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Wasting no time, I picked up my 6BR and my favourite lamping kit – a Cluson Clu Briter spotlight and Trio pro gunlight and headed out to a large valley bordering two large moors. Though it was a dark night with the build up of clouds, I must have stuck out like a flea on a blanket and with only remnants’ of dry stone walls to break up my silhouette it was going to be hard!

When deer stalking, if you crouch or bend down it makes it harder for the deer to recognise you as a threat and the same goes for whatever you’re hunting. But there’s no way I could walk round like that all night! Likewise, I couldn’t walk the bottom of the valley, as that would mean I would be shooting up towards the skyline. The only way I could cover the ground while trying to keep a low profile was to try and keep below the skyline, walking slow from one bit of sparse cover to another. Things like a clump of reeds are enough to help break up your silhouette, but despite my best efforts all I came across were tracks in the fresh snow, one set crossing over another. But they all seemed to be heading in the same general direction, towards two neighbouring farms.

SEEK AND FIN

If I were to carry on in the direction I was going I would no doubt pick up a fox in the beam. But only seeing tracks made me wonder if they had already seen me, and sneaked off before I could target them? If that was the case, the only fox I was likely to see would be one making off in the distance. With this in mind, I decided to head over the hill and onto the farm lane, walking back towards the farm. At least the dry stone walls along the lane would give me all the cover I would need, though I would have fewer opportunities to lamp, due to the lay of the land.

Normally, I would pick an ambush point and wait, not using a lamp at all, but that’s best with a clear sky increasing my field of view. But being over cast and wanting to cover as much ground as possible, I was perhaps a little too keen. Being my first outing for weeks, the one valuable bit of knowledge I gained was I now knew where the fox was travelling from and too. Information that would help me through the year to keep their numbers down.

DON’T LOOK BACK!

I made it to the lane without picking up any eye shine and stood by the gate for 30 minutes, lamping occasionally and still nothing; even without seeing the tracks, I know it was there! The night was so quiet and still with no eye shine from even a rabbit! Still feeling positive, I set off, picking my way up the lane, stopping each time I came to a low part in the wall or gate where I could lamp from. I got to within 100 yards from where I had left my car, when I picked up a flash of eye shine against a broken down stone wall, then nothing.

I started to lamp from where I first picked up the eyes, widening the circle, when I picked it up 150 yards out from the wall going uphill and I immediately switched from hand held lamp to scope- mounted lamp. In the time it took me to do that, the fox had travelled a further 50 yards up hill! Knowing I would have to be quick to get a shot, I followed it through the scope, hoping it would stop before it got to the top. The one thing I daren’t do was to squeak, as that would put it into full flight, as it knew I was there. Hoping that it would stop and take one last look back before disappearing over the hill, and in true textbook style it did within seconds. Big mistake; I placed the cross hairs on its chest, touched the trigger and it was all over, 100 yards from where I set off four a half hours ago.

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