Having recently acquired a new permission, a few intrepid members of The Wessex Ferret Club, with varying degrees of experience, set off to help at a golf course with a rabbit problem, and on a crisp and clear morning (we meant it was freezing!) we all huddled together with our ferrets and made our plan of attack!
The warren was scouted, the purse nets in place, the long nets rolled out, we had a cup of coffee …
And it was down to business, in went the ferrets, and we made our first mistake! As we patrolled the long nets in front of the warren, the rabbits had other ideas and went in the opposite direction, while one ferret decided in liked the warren and had to be helped out by digging a new hole! This called for a re-think of battle plans!
We re scouted the area and found another warren! This was besieged with nets on all sides, and we had another cup of coffee …
This time success! After several other rather empty outings we finally caught one of the little critters! This lead to a celebratory cup of coffee …
So filled with the pride of actually having caught something (and coffee) we continued working our way round the course, with our bunny tally slowly increasing, and after 7 hours, we had a fair few to show for our work, a better idea of the lay of the land and a happy landowner, who asked us back to have another go later in the month.
And then we got a nice surprise! We were asked if we wanted to work the ferrets on part of the land used as a riding school, and so we were lead to this new area with looks of intrigue on the faces of our more experienced ferreters. When we got there, these looks changed from intrigue to wonder, as their little eyes widen and tears of joy welled up (a bit like Scrat seeing the giant acorn in Ice Age 2), as we saw a piece of land that was a ferreters dream, full of brambles, gorse and rabbits! Then someone said “We haven’t got enough long nets!”
So it’s back to the golf course in a few weeks, and making more long nets in the evening, ready for a dream day out at the new bury!
Last modified: February 9, 2015