Foxglove

Much of our ferreting involves large stands of nettles, brambles and the like, but the bracken around these buries had been recently mown as part of the control process, and we were free to ferret in comfort. As we arrived, we saw four rabbits hop into one of the buries, so our spirits were high and we wasted no time in getting our nets set and the ferrets into their transmitter collars.

The dog, pleased to be back at work, dipped her nose above the rabbit holes, telling us that there were rabbits inside. She is too much the professional to give away her presence by nosing into the bury or scraping with her paws, knowing that the less disturbance, the more the rabbits will be likely to bolt once the ferrets go down.

It took us an hour to net the run of buries and then the ferrets went into the first one we had prepared, which had then been quiet for the longest time.

We took up our positions on the edges, making sure that the wind did not blow our scent into the rabbit holes, and we waited, silent and unmoving. The dog had frozen into stillness also, which is not something you can train but part of the inborn skills of the predator.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette September 24