Very cold start, it was 1 degree at 0530 as I was driving up the M90, the sun was splitting the trees though. Promise of a beautiful day
Anyway, I got behind the gun at about ten to six and had eight good, healthy rabbits in the bag inside an hour.
One part of this permission covers another garden, who's owner also wants me to keep rabbits down there. It's a never ending task as they migrate in from three sides, but hey ho, it keeps me amused.
As I was spying out this second garden I saw it was fairly moving with life: So much so that it took on, for a little while, an almost surreal atmosphere.
There were at least four rabbits. There were five red squirrels. Yes, five! I have never seen more than two reds simultaneously in my puff.
There was a magnificent melanistic cock pheasant (one of those rare, fabulous blue green jobs)
Chaffinches, a bullfinch, coal tits, blackbirds, a thrush.
I was half expecting to see Mr Tumnus.
Anyway, the cock pheasant spotted me and bolted, so I quickly killed two of the rabbits, the second one did one of those super high back flips and landed back on the turf with a resounding thump.
That spooked just about everything, so I backed out the way I'd come in as quietly as possible, made my way back to the car and swapped my rifle for my Canon
took it back to the scene and took these pics. Three of the reds had departed, no sign of the pheasant, but these quickly fell to my deadly aim...
Breakfast club first sitting....
Breakfast club second sitting
I felt truly blessed! I got to within about six metres by moving slowly and quietly
