Tonight North Staffordshire foxing supremo, Nathan Whitehead, tries a new way of taking
his quarry....
With night vision!
The fox is the scourge of the countryside and one of nature's most troublesome pests.
A fox can destroy a coup full of chickens in a matter of minutes and leave a farm without
a valuable source of income.
A fox can destroy infrastructure by digging holes, destroying fences and tearing apart
rubbish bins or bags.
Foxes also carry disease and as they move they spread it across the countryside infecting
native wildlife and domestic animals.
Hydatids, distemper, lung worm, parvovirus, canine hepatitis, heart worm and sarcopic
mange are all carried by foxes.
The control of fox numbers in the countryside is a vital part of agricultural management
and almost every farm employs a shoot on sight policy.
Some farmers allow local hunters and shooters to patrol their land and help control the
fox numbers in order to protect the farm and their livelihoods.
Tonight we are on a farm in North Staffordshire with Nathan Whitehead as he embarks on his
usual rounds of the local farm.
However, before he can undertake his duties, he needs to get across the tricky farm fields.
I have come out tonight, as the foxes are causing themselves to be a bit of a pain.
We are going to try and do our best.
We have been baiting him out now for a few nights, and hopefully he is going to come
out, and we can sort him out.
He has been baited up with a few dog biscuits and a couple of pheasant carcusses that were
left over from last weekend's beating.
With a bit of luck we can sort him out.
We are just heading down through these fields here, they are slightly boggy, we have had
rain for the last few hours of this afternoon, so we have been coming across and it has been
handling it brilliantly, just going to pull up here now and we can walk the rest of the
way.
Hopefully Mr foc will be sat waiting for us when we get there.
We have got the new fancy kit in The Huntsman, we have brought the 22-250 out tonight for
these foxes, shooting ballistic tips again.
50 grain, it is a Howa 22-250 with a 4-16x50 Hawke scope on it.
It is what I use for shooting all my foxes, does the trick quite nicely.
Nathan attaches the NiteSite NS200 to his rifle and he's ready to go.
He's also got the Nite Site Spotter for spotting foxes in the darkness without the use of a
lamp and giving his location away.
Nathan gets into the field and checks on his bait.
It's literally minutes before a fox comes running into the field, but he isn't staying
still for long.
As the fox darts about Nathan is trying to get his scope and night vision set up in order
to find a shot, but its too late.
The fox hasn't hung around and Nathan has been caught off guard.
It all comes down to preparation Im afraid, and Nathan has missed his chance.
A hare runs across Nathan's line of sight only a few yards ahead of him.
It's not noticed Nathan lying in the darkness using the night vision set up.
Then...
it spots something isn't right and makes a run for it.
A little disappointed Nathan gets himself prepped and set up for
the next fox.
He gets his sight picture clear and ready, then gives a few calls for the fox.
He scans the field for any signs of eyes, but all is now quiet.
And with a bright moon in the sky there's plenty of ambient light.
This means a fox has a better chance of spotting Nathan than usual.
And... with one chance gone begging, it could now be a long night.
Nathan decides to take a walk and heads down the opposite field with the spotter.
He scans the hedgerows, fields, fences and darkness looking for eyes.
There's a few rabbits here and there, but no fox.
He covers the entire perimeter of the farm without the luck of spotting another fox and
is surely ruing his missed opportunity.
With a few miles of walking under his belt Nathan heads back to his bait spot and decides
to wait a little while.
He waits only minutes once again before a fox enters the field and comes running down
the hedgerow.
Nathan watches him on the spotter.
Then he moves into a shooting position and readies the rifle.
As soon as the fox slows Nathan has him in his sights.
He fires!
A good thud and the fox drops on the spot.
Nathan's pretty happy after the missed opportunity at the beginning of the night.
Right we have come from the car, at about half past eight, come through the gate, sat
down.
The baited area is 100 - 120 yards just down the field there, the fox come through the
back hedge to it, I couldn't get a shot at it, we have just walked the whole farm, come
back again, and it is now half past 10, and a fox has just come out of the far corner
of the field.
Straight the way across on to the baited area, stopped perfect for the shot.
Nathan moves in for a closer inspection and his vixen is definitely down.
It is always good to take a vixen cause that gives you the possibility of 6 come spring.
6 more cubs, few more pheasants and with chickens on the farm, it is 6 gone that could of been
playing more havoc next year.
Its a nice, good condition fox.
Well, good placed shot, dropped it on the spot.
With it all stripped down Nathan packs away his rifle and the Nite Site kit, to head for
home.
The farmer will be happy that a good healthy vixen has been taken out.
And, the possibility of her delivering a litter of cubs next spring is also avoided.
This farm will be fox free for at least one night.