Irish Extra May 2021

I have just returned from a particularly long and hard day ferreting. It was too warm; the brambles were too thick and the rabbits were too small for the nets!

Ferreting at this time of the year is never ideal and I usually avoid it like the plague if possible but this particular area had to be done so I had little choice. I have read and heard many times of Hob ferrets not being particularly keen on working at this time of year due to being on season and having only one thing on their mind, however I found the two Hobs I had with me today clearing small warrens very keen and effective. If I am honest, I never noticed my Hobs lacking in spring or otherwise and as yet have never felt the need to work castrated Hobs, but each to their own I suppose. This year I have decided to mate a couple of my jills and hopefully produce some kits for my own use. This was something I avoided doing for some years for various reasons. However, over the last few years it has become very obvious that not only are ferrets harder to obtain, but good quality working ones are even harder to obtain. The ferret quality definitely has slid in recent years and it is now just necessary to breed from one’s own stock and hopefully produce good workers. “Put the best to the best and hope for the best” was a great phrase I read somewhere on breeding animals.

I had with me today, my Lurcher bitch “Fudge”, the offspring of a mating some 12 years between a bitch I owned called “Ruby” and a dog called “Paco” owned by Darren Connolly from Gilford and was a well-known dog in his day. “Fudge” was the result of the mating and was everything her mother was and a little more. Fudge, just like her mother Ruby, had a terrible habit of having near death experiences. Missing speeding vehicles by inches, falling off quarry faces and running back out or falling out of a vehicle while it was travelling where just a few of the scrapes both got themselves into and how they never succumbed to a lethal accident I will never know. Today “Fudge” was never going to put herself in any danger as she has just got too old. She really seems to have aged more in the last 18 months than in her entire 12 years and it seems like her prey drive has almost as good as gone, but we still had a some fun, she caught a couple of very unlucky (and slow) rabbits but today was her last day hunting. From now she can relax and take things easy, and become a little fatter for a lurcher and take life a little slower. Fudge and I have hunted right across the country, and even in Scotland and England and on many Islands over the years in the pursuit of rabbits. She was my only companion sometimes for days at a time and was not only a genuine roustabout Lurcher with a keen fondness for the chase, but she spent many happy weekends working with me in the arena as part of rabbiting demonstrations at game fairs and events, and of course she had her own fan base after she played a major role in the BBC Documentary, “The Last Rabbit Catcher”. I did breed “Fudge” once and kept back two pups, one of which is now deceased. My opinion on the pups was very simple, “You can steal the recipe but the sauce is never the same”.

The Lough Beg Conservation Project

Eugene Lynn from Northern Ireland, a keen Wild Fowler, put together a Conservation project for Wildfowl in the early spring. I chased him down for a small write up in his own words which not only benefits Wildfowl Conservation, but also charity.

Myself along with many other lads always try to do our bit each year with regards to Conservation weather that is trapping, nest tubes etc.  However this year I wanted to go bigger and try and get as many people involved as possible. When I first thought of this project the plan was to try and get as many volunteers from the local Wildfowling community on board and get this plan into action. On my first post I had set out to gather funds through means of a raffle where I gifted some of my surplus gear to raise money to buy the materials needed to make 50 nest tubes for Lough Beg in Northern Ireland. The target was £600 which was needed to buy wooden posts, decking boards, wire mesh and hay etc but as soon as the Facebook post went live my phone got very busy. I was overwhelmed with the people wanting to get on board and my phone started to ping with constant PayPal notifications of donations.

There were more people interested than I first thought and with a good few Lough Neagh shooters showing interest the decision was made to stretch it out and make an additional 50 only this time the plans had changed and instead of wood we were changing to steel game to steel which would be a vast improvement. Four lads got in contact immediately offering their time and commitment to get this operation going and get the 100 steel cradles fabricated and ready to go.

Plans were set out and with 2 mornings work cutting and welding and a few late evenings we had the steel work and nest tubes all made and ready to go. Big thanks the lads who showed up in my shed to get all the nest tubes made and loaded onto the trailer ready for fitting especially Aidan and Ethan.

A total of £710.00 was donated alone by men from all parts of the country including America this was not only wildfowling men but men who seen the benefit of what was being done and they wanted to contribute to the project. These people donated their money with clear instruction that they did not want entered in the initial fundraising raffle they just simply wanted to take part.

In the end the total raised via the raffles was £1770 the additional £710 donated was added leaving the Total raised at £2480

A total of £2113.52 was used on materials leaving £366.48 left over from the project which I have rounded up to £400 and as mentioned this money has been donated to the below 4 different charities.

• £100 was donated to the community rescue service.
• £100 was donated to chest heart and stroke charity.
• £100 was donated to Northern Ireland children’s hospice.
• £100 Was donated to the olive branch charity Magherafelt.

Massive thanks to all who got involved and supported the project and the 4 chosen charities. also big thanks to Ryan from Shivweld Castle Dawson for the use of his shed equipment and time for the fabrication and the fitting side of things. Thanks to Ciaran barrow from C.B fabrications and Dean and his son Luke McErlean for the fabrication and fitting also.

One last thing that must be mentioned is this is all the evidence you need to show that we as hunters do care and do give back to the countryside, we all love to get out in.  it’s not all about the shooting, conservation is and must be part of being a wildfowler. Conservation must always remain hand in hand with our sport and this proves that it’s not a September to January season it’s a commitment that we as countryside people and wildfowlers accept and embrace. With the time and effort that has been made these nest tubes can be reused for many years to come.