The foxing year that was
As I write this in September, after what has been a really good summer thus far in Devon, the weather has suddenly turned really nasty with gales and torrential rain. Nothing like the appalling conditions experienced in Yorkshire, but bad enough – certainly enough to curtail any shooting for a day (and night) or so. So I thought I would cast my mind back over what has gone before so far this year.
Certainly, as far as Callum my shooting partner and I have been concerned, the fox control has gone really well. As is normally the case around here, fox numbers have remained at about the same level as they usually do. Within the parish we normally expect to deal with about 100 foxes a year – mainly troublemakers where we are asked to remove them. Added to these are others that we travel farther afield to deal with.
Cub numbers have been higher than I can remember for years – largely, I suspect, because of the prolonged good weather. Surprisingly, the dearth of rabbits in the area has eased – the two VHD diseases followed as usual by myxomatosis seemed to have little or no effect on fox numbers.
