Things have really gone through the roof over the last few weeks – so much so that I simply have not had the time to post anything!
This morning, I thought I would show you an ongoing Wildlife Management program in action and the results of hard work over about a year. This farm in Newbury has lots of set aside and so it is an ideal habitat for all sorts of birds and animals to live. However, the farm decided to embark on a campaign of wildlife management to keep the pest species down so other more rare birds and animals can use this habitat.
We started about a year ago on this project and the biggest problems were rabbit control, fox control and the amount of corvid preditors (magpies and carrion crows). with the grass still quite short, the rabbits were our first target and getting them under control. Early morning shooting and lamping were very effective, combined with ferreting to really get the upper hand has paid off.
Foxes were also a bit issue, with many town foxes coming onto this land from Newbury. Again several weeks of Fox culling reduced the numbers and removed some pretty mangy creatures – a symptom of over-population and urbanised foxes and a clear indication that fox control was needed.
Corvids were trapped and shot very successfully too so now, instead of seeing dozens of these preditors, we see a sensible number.
It is always our aim to strike a balance – we do not want to remove all preditors as they have a major role to play in the whole diversity model, but you don’t want too many as they normally wipe out the “easy” targets like nesting and young birds whilst leaving the rabbits alone.
All this work has culminated in this short video – basically Lapwings (also called Peewits) are now rearing young quite happily in this area, as well as many song birds like Linets, Yellow Hammers, Gold Finches, Green finches and many more. At night, I have seen a pair of Barn Owls hunting, so I am looking forward to seeing the young ones shortly.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCxX2n2hvCg&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00]
We are all very pleased with this work and to see the fruits of our labour. If you want to discuss Wildlife Management and how it can help wildlife on your land, Contact Rapid Pest Control now.
