Fox Pause

Spare a thought for a couple of my colleagues. We've been champing at the bit, wanting to get on with our foxing but the weather has been so bad we've had to put things on hold. Unfortunately those two found a den just before the weather took a serious downturn. Or should that be downpour? They did get the vixen coming in to the hole at 3am on the first night. But there was no sign of the dog. And the weather was awful. So they were out again all last night. They got a glimpse of the dog in the wee small hours but never got a shot. And the weather was worse. As I write this, the last of the light is leaving the sky. The guys will be back at the den by now. It's been a shocker of a day- wind, rain and snow on the tops. And the forecast is for it to deteriorate through the night. Who'd have thought it possible? As for me, it looks like it will be another day of crow cages and stoat traps tomorrow. It's high time I was checking my trees for crows nests too. But with a lot of the trees being up in the rock faces, I'll maybe leave that until the hill is drier and the rocks less slippery. If the recent weather is anything to go by, the trees will be in full leaf by the time that happens. Just so long as they're not turning yellow!

A Whole Lot of Holes

Well, the rest of the heather burning season passed with nary a stick being burnt. If we'd been desperate we might have got a fire in on Friday afternoon but, by that stage, we were all geared up for other activities.

The grouse nesting season fast approaches. It's the time of year that hens are most vulnerable. To say nothing of eggs and chicks. So we've been putting our 'smoke break' to good use by getting all our stoat traps and crow cages set up. We also managed to get a few of our regular maintenance jobs out of the way which will free us up a bit more in the coming weeks.

Which is very good news for now our foxing season is upon us. And that means there just wont be enough hours in the day for the next few weeks.

We started today by walking a chunk of our lowest ground. It some areas, the ground is just riddled with rabbit holes- any of which could be scraped out and used by a fox.

So myself and 5 colleagues walked in a widely-spaced line with our shotguns and terrriers. We walked and we checked out sandholes and cairns as we went. We walked and we checked, we checked and we walked. We started walking at, say 0930 and we stopped at around 1600. That's a lot of holes.

By good fortune we didn't find anything. I say that because if we'd found a den, two of us would have been out all night on a stake-out for the dog fox. And the forecast is appalling.

But we've been there before and survived to tell the tale. Though not in language we could use in front of the children.

And The Weather Will Be Changeable....

Well, we're still not burning heather. The weather has gone from the sublime to the cor blimey. Suffice to say there wont be any runaway fires for a while.

The pics were taken just 4 days apart. If you look closely you'll see a tree bent double under the weight of snow. Coming into leaf obviously increases their surface area.

There's a niggling thought that keeps coming into our heads- in two weeks time we should be starting our foxing season. And with that comes our all-night vigils as we stake out the dens.

Maybe that should be 'fridgils'.

An Early Start for an Early Start

Any readers from this part of the world will be aware of the exceptional weather we've been having. Yesterday saw the highest temperature for a March day ever recorded and I haven't checked to see if that record was beaten today.

Going by the amount of perspiration it took for me to get to the top of the hill, I'd say there was a fair chance of it.

But what it means for us is that we've had to suspend our heather burning activities. Things were already getting 'kittely' last week so it's just not for chancing now.

So we've been getting round our traps and catching up some maintenance jobs. Tomorrow we're going to get on the hilltops for daybreak and see if we can get an early start to our fox season.

The alarm is set for 4.30am- so what the hell am I doing still sitting here writing this??

*Sigh*

See what I mean?

Hanging On The Telephone

Since my last blog we've been doing a lot of heather burning. And each day has been a little drier than the day before. Thankfully winds have been light or else we could have been making the 6 o' clock news.

Today I had a bit of change. We've hired a mini-digger and I've been building up grit piles.

The last time I did this I think I described it as spending a day in a phone box. On reflection, this isn't entirely accurate. Not unless the phone boxes you use are prone to lurching over to damn-near tipping point at the drop of a hat.

Someone once described war as 90% boredom, 10% terror. At least I think it was war.... who knows, maybe he'd had a mini-digger oot the hill.

Before I go, I'd just like to thank all you regular visitor for your continued support. I'm a bit compulsive about checking my website 'stats' and it's seeing people coming back for more that keeps me doing this.

So it's all thanks to you that I've just landed a regular slot with a monthly shooting magazine!!!!!! I write this with a big smile on my face- and bigger butterflies in my stomach.

Blimey.

Heaps of Jobs

The hind season is but a distant memory now. Since that last squeeze of the trigger, we've all been playing catch-up. There are a heap of jobs that have been on hold for a long time.

We now have hundreds of 'gritting stations' all over the estate. These piles create high points that the grouse gravitate to and contained in the pile is a tray of medicated grit. The grouse take the grit (it helps break down the vegetation in their gizzard) and it kills parasites in their gut.

I can tell you I can soon get a bellyfull of grouse grit. Getting round the piles to replenish the grit is bad enough but creating new piles is back-breaking work. Each pile takes 20-30 minutes of digging.

But when it's been dry enough, we've been burning heather. It's also high time to get caught up with some of the stoats, rats and weasels. We're probably 7 weeks away from the grouse starting to nest and that's when they are most vulnerable.

And, of course, there are a heap of maintenance jobs too. Hmmm, I'd rather not think about it too much.