As is the way with my gamekeeping experiences, just as things start to work nicely, a spanner is dropped into the works. A few of my girlfriend’s coturnix quail escaped from their pen a week ago, and three of them have since become feral in the garden. As easy as it would be to catch Continue reading

It’s being a very odd spring for the crows on the Chayne. I would usually have caught several pairs by now, but I have only been able to catch a single bird so far. It’s not as if my campaign is being badly directed (I don’t think) – I am just not seeing the birds Continue reading

Given that we are about a month behind schedule for the breeding birds, it seems unlikely that there is much to be gained from running larsens for a few more weeks. However, there has been a pair of corbie crows coming in to one of my last feed hoppers, along with a range of rooks, Continue reading

Now is the key time for catching up with foxes and stoats before the spring really takes off. A friend advised me to try working Mk. 4s along the tops of drystane dykes, and I’ve been setting some of these up (as above) over the past few days, but while I’ve been having some luck Continue reading

It’s taken three weeks and a maddening amount of paperwork, but I have finally received a snaring ID number through the post. I would be happy to publish it here, but given that I am now responsible for every snare in Scotland bearing that number, I’d rather not broadcast it. It’s one of the major Continue reading

After months of confusion and growing irritation surrounding the new snaring legislation, I finally managed to submit my application for a snaring ID number this evening in the local police station. To be quite honest, the police officer who processed my application was perfectly civil, and even though it was the first time he had Continue reading

Just worth noting that within a few hours of resetting my see-saw traps along the new hedgerow, I managed to catch a somewhat irate field mouse. I posted in more detail about see-saw traps last year, and I have been very impressed with these simple machines. Not only are they much cheaper than spring traps, Continue reading

After a fairly significant fall of snow overnight, the glen was smothered under a white blanket this morning. No more than three or four inches at its deepest, most of the snow had fallen shortly before dawn. I was keen to get up to the Chayne for a look around at the tracks, but I Continue reading

As the legislation surrounding snaring gets tighter and tighter in Scotland, I speak to more and more people who are thinking of just packing it in. Farmers and small-time syndicate keepers just can’t face the red tape, and although they dread the consequences that a drop in efficient fox control could bring about, a culture Continue reading

Worth posting an update on the ermine which made an appearance in the stack of logs at the beginning of the week. True to form, it was curious enough to come back for a look at the damage that I had done to its nest and was not put off by the fact that I Continue reading