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1 hour ago, alta-pete said:

At the start of lockdown I witnessed a Sparrowhawk chase a pigeon into our living room window and execute the stunned bird with a scalpel like slash to its neck artery. Caught the gore on video, I’ll see if I can find it…

We moved house to a more rural position a month or so ago. The milkman delivers eggs with our milk but someone had ripped open the egg box and helped themselves to three, two of which seemed to be shells and all. What’s that likely to be? An enterprising cat (I doubt it, it never happened at the old place) or a fox or badger? 

Magpies are bad for ripping and tossing eggs but I'm not sure about them eating them. 

I live in the country side so I often see a few rabbits come in to the garden. 

Couple of foxes too but they are usually heading up the cow field behind us. 

The odd feral cat as well, there are a few farms nearby and I thought at first farm cats but I'd seen one sat on the windowsill one night and it was a scrawny scraggy thing. 

We also get invaded by cows Alot. One of the farmers either has a houdini cow or has lost the plot and leaves the gate open. We don't have a gate so it's usually the first opening the buggers can see. Gave me the fear one time seeing what looked to be a giant crack across my windscreen.. It was drool for want of a better term. 

Also had field mice get into the house over winter there. Tried humane traps but they weren't falling for it, kids were scared to go to bed so got the ol wooden ones. Caught one in the kids room one day and only saw it as taking the 3 year old to bed. Tried best to hide the horror from him but he saw it and just said bye mouse. 

 

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At the start of lockdown I witnessed a Sparrowhawk chase a pigeon into our living room window and execute the stunned bird with a scalpel like slash to its neck artery. Caught the gore on video, I’ll see if I can find it…
We moved house to a more rural position a month or so ago. The milkman delivers eggs with our milk but someone had ripped open the egg box and helped themselves to three, two of which seemed to be shells and all. What’s that likely to be? An enterprising cat (I doubt it, it never happened at the old place) or a fox or badger? 


Possibly pinemartins too.
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7 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Here on the Ayrshire coast I struggle to get Hebe's through the winter even in pots. Best if you have a greenhouse to over winter them.

 

5 hours ago, Loonytoons said:

No issues at all with Hebe growing up in Perthshire.

Thanks guys. It's certainly not one I remembered much growing up in Ayrshire - feels like I might have a decent chance here. I'll give it a go this weekend. 

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Caught our regular dog fox on the camera making off with half a boiled egg this morning, it's nice to see what he looks like in daylight.

From looking at all of the footage we've collected over the past couple of weeks, we've figured out we have two regular foxes (a dog and a much smaller vixen) along with another individual that only seems to have appeared once in the same timeframe. I'm pretty sure the vixen watches for me coming out now as she always appears on the camera around 10minutes after I put it out.

fox_egg.png

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Caught our regular dog fox on the camera making off with half a boiled egg this morning, it's nice to see what he looks like in daylight.
From looking at all of the footage we've collected over the past couple of weeks, we've figured out we have two regular foxes (a dog and a much smaller vixen) along with another individual that only seems to have appeared once in the same timeframe. I'm pretty sure the vixen watches for me coming out now as she always appears on the camera around 10minutes after I put it out.
fox_egg.thumb.png.49af79904b0e0a5f6ba7b67957ea4519.png
It's amazing how quickly the become sort of, tame. They ones would be eating out your hand in a few weeks if you were to let them.
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14 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:
2 hours ago, Rizzo said:
Caught our regular dog fox on the camera making off with half a boiled egg this morning, it's nice to see what he looks like in daylight.
From looking at all of the footage we've collected over the past couple of weeks, we've figured out we have two regular foxes (a dog and a much smaller vixen) along with another individual that only seems to have appeared once in the same timeframe. I'm pretty sure the vixen watches for me coming out now as she always appears on the camera around 10minutes after I put it out.
fox_egg.thumb.png.49af79904b0e0a5f6ba7b67957ea4519.png

It's amazing how quickly the become sort of, tame. They ones would be eating out your hand in a few weeks if you were to let them.

Aye, I follow a couple of Facebook pages where folk have taught them to take food from people.

Not something I fancy trying. Knowing my luck I'd lose a finger.

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On 03/06/2022 at 22:32, Estragon said:

 

Thanks guys. It's certainly not one I remembered much growing up in Ayrshire - feels like I might have a decent chance here. I'll give it a go this weekend. 

A hard frost is tough on them especially when they are young. I've had several that didn't survive and others that have thrived for years. Good luck.

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On 03/06/2022 at 16:50, weirdcal said:

Magpies are bad for ripping and tossing eggs but I'm not sure about them eating them. 

I live in the country side so I often see a few rabbits come in to the garden. 

Couple of foxes too but they are usually heading up the cow field behind us. 

The odd feral cat as well, there are a few farms nearby and I thought at first farm cats but I'd seen one sat on the windowsill one night and it was a scrawny scraggy thing. 

We also get invaded by cows Alot. One of the farmers either has a houdini cow or has lost the plot and leaves the gate open. We don't have a gate so it's usually the first opening the buggers can see. Gave me the fear one time seeing what looked to be a giant crack across my windscreen.. It was drool for want of a better term. 

Also had field mice get into the house over winter there. Tried humane traps but they weren't falling for it, kids were scared to go to bed so got the ol wooden ones. Caught one in the kids room one day and only saw it as taking the 3 year old to bed. Tried best to hide the horror from him but he saw it and just said bye mouse. 

 

The kids are scared of mice?! So you thought then you were justified to kill the mice in a horrible way. Well done, tough guy. Jesus Christ.

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On 11/06/2022 at 11:38, Rizzo said:

Caught our regular dog fox on the camera making off with half a boiled egg this morning, it's nice to see what he looks like in daylight.

From looking at all of the footage we've collected over the past couple of weeks, we've figured out we have two regular foxes (a dog and a much smaller vixen) along with another individual that only seems to have appeared once in the same timeframe. I'm pretty sure the vixen watches for me coming out now as she always appears on the camera around 10minutes after I put it out.

fox_egg.png

We have a lot of foxes round our way. Yesterday, taking tools out to the car about 9am, i bumped into a dog fox just at the neighbours drive - not sure who shat themselves more...................actually, I do it was me !!

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1 hour ago, Leith Green said:

We have a lot of foxes round our way. Yesterday, taking tools out to the car about 9am, i bumped into a dog fox just at the neighbours drive - not sure who shat themselves more...................actually, I do it was me !!

We now have three that are coming regularly. The newest one seems to be suffering from a skin complaint as he's lost a lot of his fur and husbtail looks like a pipe cleaner. The lack of hair on his face makes his teeth look bigger and he's a bit terrifying quite frankly. 

When I was younger I used to love reading about mystery creatures like big foot, nessie etc. There was an odd creature blamed for a ton of livestock killing in Mexico and folk described it as looking similar to a kangaroo with glowing eyes, minimal hair and huge fangs (the animal was dubbed "chupacabra").

Looking at our trailcam footage makes me think that the stories have definately spawned from folk seeing a fox or coyote with a similar ailment.

20220617_182747.jpg

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11 hours ago, Delicate Flower said:

The kids are scared of mice?! So you thought then you were justified to kill the mice in a horrible way. Well done, tough guy. Jesus Christ.

Evidently your name gives you away. 

Mice are able to reproduce from age of 6 weeks, have a 3 week gestation period. Litters of around 5-6 on average and are ready to reproduce again after birth. 

It had a chance with the humane traps, pest control would have poisoned them and they would be in the same position as snappy trap except poison might have been worse than the quick neck snap. 

And yes, the kids being scared to be alone in rooms sped up the decision. 

Plus the pied piper only specialised in rats. 

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On 18/06/2022 at 08:13, Delicate Flower said:

The kids are scared of mice?! So you thought then you were justified to kill the mice in a horrible way. Well done, tough guy. Jesus Christ.

 

I'd have put down poison as well traps to get rid of them.

 

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When I lived in an old farmhouse, the attic was absolutely infested with mice. I set 3 traps everyday at least once and got bored of having to keep throwing dead mice over the garden wall.

I ended up getting a pest control guy out to set some poison out for them. About two days later I came home from work and there was a mouse sitting on my doorstep just staring into space coughing up blood. I felt fucking awful after that so vowed to never use it again.

I actually gave up using traps too eventually before I moved. The only problem they ever gave me was a bad smell when one of them died in the wall.

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