Settling the score on pests

With the greys causing damage and plenty of orders to fill, Leon Challis-Davies gets into the woods and whips up a Mexican treat

- Leon Challis-Davies

While spring hasn’t quite yet sprung as I write this, you can smell it in the air. The odd sunny day and the scent of freshly cut grass signals the start of the season, and the snowdrops and crocuses have made way for the primroses and daffodils. But the more consistent cold and wet conditions mean the trees remain bare, making it very easy to see squirrel dreys.

Ever since being introduced to our countryside in the 1870s, the grey squirrel has wreaked havoc on British habitats, causing problems to forests and native wildlife, devastating songbird and ground-nesting bird populations and being a nightmare to gamekeepers. So what better way to make the most of spring than to load up the freezer with these pests?

Stuart Eborall of Warwickshire Wild Game invited me to help control the numbers of squirrels on his rights one morning. While they are being controlled very well across all of his rights, he has seen a sudden increase in sales and orders for these delicious critters and so needed a hand along with some recipe ideas.

I packed my trusty gas stove and off I went. I was hoping for one of those rare sunny spring days, but alas it was not to be. A damp, drizzly grey day greeted me, complete with a nip in the air. But, fortunately, Stuart’s friend Tom Gosbell from Thomas Jacks came up with the goods to cheer me up, by letting me use his Pulsar Axion 2 LRF XQ35 spotter — and what a bit of kit this is. My day was suddenly a whole lot brighter.