Unwelcome visitors

With owners of rough shoots engaged in the never-ending battle against pests and predators, DBB offers some springtime wisdom

During spring and summer, the success or failure of the shooting season to come is decided partly by nature and partly by the efforts of either the gamekeeper or the shoot owner. We are here considering only the smaller shoot where no keeper is employed and there is only the owner or tenant to perform a little amateur keepering.

Without a full-time keeper, little can be done in the way of hand-rearing, or with partridges on the Euston system, and it is best to concentrate on waging war on vermin. A few weekends devoted to clearing some of the vermin off your ground will yield surprising dividends in the form of larger bags later in the year.

Crows and magpies are the chief feathered offenders on the average shoot and the chances of large coveys of partridge are slim indeed if either of these infest your ground. In spring, they hunt incessantly along the undergrowth of the hedgerows, and it is a well-concealed partridge or pheasant nest that escapes their sharp and practised eyes.

One easy way to reduce their numbers is to shoot them on the nest. Both species are on the increase everywhere, especially the magpie, and in some localities where 20 years ago their noisy chatter was seldom heard, they are now as common as rabbits. Fortunately, a magpie’s nest is easy to find and a well-aimed dose of shot may kill the bird as she slips on or off the eggs.

In districts that abound with them another unmated hen bird may take over the nest and eggs, and she may be similarly dealt with a few days later. In one well-known case, hen magpies were shot off the same nest each morning for several days running.

One method of dealing with winged vermin is to put down bait near a hide and there lie in wait for a bird to approach. Eggs or a freshly killed rabbit may be used as bait. Eggshells scattered round the former, and fur and entrails lying near the rabbit, will increase the attractiveness of this bait. A dead woodpigeon may be used, laid breast uppermost and with a handful of breast feathers scattered round. The hide must be a good, well-chosen one, for neither crows nor magpies are fools.

If you are not gifted with patience, use a trap instead to catch the bird.

For this, the bait is best laid in a narrow recess in a hedge, or in the undergrowth, in such a position that the bird will spring the covered trap as it hops up to inspect the bait. If necessary, lay two traps in the run-in to the bait to prevent the bird from reaching it without being caught.

Silent destroyers

Jays are neither as numerous nor as vicious a pest as magpies or crows, but they, too, should receive no quarter, for they are decidedly inimical to any attempt at game preservation. Moreover, despite their constant persecution, they more than hold their own in numbers.

In the nesting season, they are silent and difficult to locate in their home woods. The best method is to seek out the nest and hide nearby for a shot, then destroy the eggs.

The stoat and the weasel are most damaging to the rough shoot. Fortunately, however, they are readily

trapped. Use part of a freshly killed rabbit or some eggs for bait and set two or more traps round it. These traps must, of course, be visited early each morning to despatch the victim and end its sufferings — and the traps must each be covered with a board throughout the day.

Great travellers

Tunnel traps are equally good for reducing the number of stoats or weasels on your shoot, for both animals are great travellers and are unable to resist going through any small tunnel they encounter, whether these are natural or suitably made artificial ones.

A shooter who lives some distance from his shoot will be unable to make use of traps and he will have to rely on his gun at weekends to curb the mustelids’ ravages. They are usually afield hunting at dawn and midday, and again early in the evening.

The blackbird is the surest indicator of the presence of stoat or weasel, with its insistent low calls of alarm — a very different call from the shrill, loud alarm notes with which it betrays the presence of an owl or other feathered intruders.

Hasten to the spot, but remain so that the stoat cannot scent you. You will soon catch him as he resumes his hunting. Both stoat and weasel have a very acute sense of smell, but they are handicapped by very poor eyesight.

Once vermin are well in hand, there is comparatively little more that can be done by the rough shoot owner who has no keeper. Throughout the summer, he should maintain the never-ending battle against the influx of winged and ground vermin from neighbouring land. If the shoots bordering his are keepered, he is fortunate, but otherwise all his free Saturdays will be occupied in dealing with unwelcome visitors.

At the beginning of May, search for any exposed or foolishly placed partridge nests and distribute the eggs among other nests on the shoot. Destroy the nest and trust that the next position chosen by the bird for her second clutch will be safer. Nests that are exposed can be screened by branches, or bushes of thorn, but it is often best to distribute the eggs.

A small pair of binoculars is useful on walk-rounds in spring and summer for many things — from identifying trespassers to counting the number of chicks trailing behind a hen partridge two or more fields away. A quiet hour or two spent in some inconspicuous spot on the shoot with glasses will teach you a great deal of the movements and habits of game and vermin on your ground.

Hitting power

A .410, or other light gun, is sometimes recommended for use against vermin out of season. The range and hitting power of a .410 is, however, insufficient for the average shot against a wily magpie, or for a right and a left into a crow’s nest. Number 4 or 5 shot should be used for these and the .410 has yet to be built that will handle this size of shot well.

Admittedly, such a light gun is easier to handle and carry throughout a long summer day than one of larger bore. Moreover, the report of the lighter gun does not disturb your shoot as much — or so we are told.

Above all, if you are the tenant of a shoot, always keep on good terms with the farmer and his men. A chat now and then, a pipe of tobacco and the occasional hare or brace of birds to the farmer in season will be far from wasted. In the breeding season, one malicious farm labourer could do more harm to your stock of birds than all the vermin you have shot or trapped the previous two years.

“The hitting power of a .410 is insufficient for the average shot against a wily magpie”

This article was first published in the 29 March 1952 issue of Shooting Times.

“In one well-known case, hen magpies were shot off the same nest several days running”

“Distribute eggs from foolishly placed partridge nests among other nests on the shoot”

“Stoats and weasels have a very acute sense of smell, but are handicapped by very poor eyesight”