A windy night!

[ad22 1]

Hi all,

 

After SJM's advice on one of my earlier posts, i put it into action, only slipping my dog at rabbits that i thought were far enough from cover and had a reasonable chance of catching. Well i don't know if you put a good luck charm on to me and my lil bitch SJM but the catch rate certainly improved!

 

So the wind that we have all been waiting for finally arrived last weekend, and i was itching to get out with my girl and do some lamping. I picked a location and then thought through where the bigger warrens are, where the rabbits will mostly like be feeding, and in which way to approach the rabbits (wind in the face of course). So with all this in my head we set off and reached our local ground some 10 minutes away by car.

 

The first field that i had chosen to start my circuit from has a metal squeaky gate at its entrance, on a stiller night the rabbits would have been running back towards me as soon as i started opening the gate, but not tonight, the wind was blowing straight into my face and my bitch was eagerly scenting the air as we entered the field as quietly as possible ( picture below shows land in the day time) It is an arable field with winter wheat growing, the edges have been left where long untidy rough grass grows and behind the grass is the hedge with the warrens.

 

So i switch the lamp on and give the field a quick scan, imediately i spot a group of rabbits yards out munching, these usually lamp shy rabbits didn't seem to notice that there was a lamp on them and carried on munching, i slipped my bitch and as she gained on the little group they all scarper and go there seperate ways. She singles out a rabbit that has decided to run further away from cover before doing a 360 and heading back towards me, she turns and looses quite a bit of ground but catches up to the rabbit before it reaches the long grass and it turns again and runs along the line of the rough grass before trying to do another 360 and getting caught out by my bitch who has anticipated this and was in a good position to strike.

 

We carry on walking our ground and catch a further two both the result of many twists and turns before the rabbit thinking it had made enough ground dived into the rough grass and thought it was hidden, but it was certainly a mistake and my girl pulls both out of the grass in a very similar manor.

 

We walk on and have to cross through a small copse to try and take the rabbits who are out feeding in the field, by suprise and get them to run back towards us. As we reach the opening to the field i switch on my lamp and straight away what looks like a black and white pair of bag pipes shuffles back into the copse, good thing my girl was on her slip, i wouldn't like to see if she was broken to badger!

 

Once this hazard has safely buggered off i switch the lamp back on and find a likely looking squatter at the top of a gentle slope, off my girl goes and the rabbit lifts before she has gone 5 yards, it is running diagonally back towards the cover, my girl is running diagonally towards the rabbit hoping to cut it off, she catches up and for a moment it looks like she is going to run straight past the rabbit, instead of turning the rabbit put its ears back flat and hits the boost, a mistake as my girl also finds her next gear and scoops the coney up with what looked liked ease.

 

A very positive note for us to end the night on i decide. She has caught a couple of rabbits whilst running fast in this manner, but she has also summersaulted in her previous attempts to make a strike at such high speed and droped the rabbit, I was very pleased to see her scoop the rabbit up. 4 rabbits out of maybe 8-10 runs, not brilliant i know, but it was some great sport and another new technique paid off

 

Below are a few pics, bottom pics is the land that was lamped and the others are some rough grass and reeds where we were attempting some bushing.

Edited December 5, 2007 by ad22

[Guest MIKE1]

hi mate how is your colie x bread

[ad22 1]

dam : bull greyhound

sire : hancock beardie border/greyhound X laguna whippet

[skycat 6,174]

Good write up: glad to hear sh'es turned, the corner (oh, maybe it's you that has turned the corner too LOL!) Really liked your description of the runs and catches.

[poacher9991 10]

nice one mate glad to hear you had a good night keep up the good work