[Music]
Finally, finally the UK has some sunshine to brag about as well as a Wimbledon champion.
But we don't want to be relaxing with a glass of chilled pinot collapso and a grass-coated
burnt sausage.
We want to be Out Foxing, especially when the grass that's not stuck to our banger has
been freshly cut and foxes are on the lookout for a cheap meal.
It is that time of year again.
We have got about 26, 27 degrees absolutely roasting but the good thing is all the fields
are getting cut.
Everything is being cut for hay.
Everything has been cut today here.
So we are going to have a quick stalk around and it could be a bit of a mixed bag and I
am hoping that we might pick up quite a few foxes later on when they start coming out
and we might also pick up a roe buck or two as well.
So fingers crossed we may have a successful evening.
Right let's get on.
We haven't been on this bit of ground for a couple of years.
Last time, Roy had roe does dancing all around us during the rut - but it looks like our
first stalk of the evening might have to be sacrificed as Roy has spotted a fox jumping
through the long grass.
A fox was just walking along to our left hand side.
I have just done a little bit of ... squeaking, but it is a bit of a crunch time because we
are coming up to where there are normally a few roe getting about so I don't really
want to make too much of a noise and a kerfuffle and start really heavily calling.
We will just slowly stroll up and see if the foxes are up there now.
That is a shame as he was probably just heading out to the field that has been cut.
This is the time of year in the UK when bucks are bold and foxes are foolish - perfect for
anyone out to shoot both.
We keep steady and 20 paces further along our fox pops out into the open.
Lady luck may be with us after all.
With a bit of prompting, eventually Roy also notices the fox.
It drops where it stands on the ride.
Best made plans and all that.
It was a shame we had t shoot it then because as I say we were just coming up into the main
area where the roe are but that same fox had us walking out all of a sudden where we had
been just very quiet and just slowly strolling up and he walked out straight in front of
us there.
First one in for the evening and away we go.
It is a vixen which has obviously had cubs.
This time of the year the vixens tend to be out hunting a little bit earlier.
She was obviously mooching around trying to find a few meals for the cubs.
But the cubs at this stage are going to be quite well on.
So I would have thought come the evening the cubs are going to be out crossing about on
the field and hopefully we can account for them then.
Shooting the fox may have blown Roy's chance of a deer but it's not a complete dead loss.
Sometimes you get a sense there must be deer here, because if I were a deer I'd be happy
here.
We make our way through another small wood.
At the end of the ride we see a doe grazing across the road - typical!
We have got deer in all the surrounding fields, but none where we have got permission.
So ... this place has normally got quite a few on it, but it has been ruined over the
last couple of years because there have been a lot of sheep grazing on here.
So I am sure the deer are around but not in the same numbers they used to be.
But then Roy's x-ray vision kicks in and a glass across this high standing grass reveals
a young buck looking our way.
So because we are losing light and we want to get onto the fields to set up for the foxes
coming out before it gets dark we are going to try and push our luck, walk along the top
here and hope that he goes down and then stops and presents us with a shot.
Normally in these circumstances it always goes wrong, but you never know David might
have turned into a good luck charm rather than a jinx.
We work our way around.
Making steady progress, Roy gets above the animal and even gets the sticks up but the
gamble doesn't pay off - the buck heads to the shelter of the wood and not down the slope.
All is not lost and we head back up towards the ride we just came down - we get a glimpse
of him in the clearing but he's gone again.
That is a shame.
We have come back up the ride he came up and he must of switched back and gone back to
the stand that he was on.
There is probably a bigger buck in the main part of the wood and he doesn't want to encroach
upon his territory too much.
So we are going to go down that way to get onto the foxes anyway.
We might still come across him again.
What to do?
We walk back around and, luckily, in the 10 minutes or so we've taken our buck appears
to have settled down to munch in a field further down the valley.
Again the height of the grass is an issue.
What we are going to do every time he puts his head down and starts feeding we are going
to make a few steps in.
If he puts his head up we are camouflaged quite well against the back stop of this wood.
Even though we are walking along the edge of it we are just going to see if we can get
right up on him.
He is down again feeding so we will try and take a few steps towards him.
We are probably only about 70 yards away.
But I just want to try and get it so we have got a clearer path for the bullet.
Are you on it?
So stupidly I didn't bring my dog to track it, but luckily in this long grass I just
tracked it as it ran and it went forward and hopefully dropped just between those two trees.
What I want to do is just have a run up, check the blood and then we will move into him.
Some stalks can be physically taxing, uncomfortable, others straightforward, all have their own
rewards.
This has had a bit of everything.
Roy has had to think on his feet, second-guessing this buck, getting it wrong, then using the
natural cover and understanding the buck's behaviour to move in close enough for a clear
chest shot.
Deer have a special technique to catch a potential predator with its proverbial pants down and
Roy has shown how to by-pass it.
A lot of the time when you are stalking up on them like that, they will dip their heads
as if they are going to feed just long enough for you to start moving and bolt their heads
right up again.
And that again is obviously millions of years of evolution in waiting for predators or looking
for predators stalking up on them.
So just wait a couple of seconds, once they have got their heads down before you start
moving.
Roy cleans the animal and skins it for the landowner.
It's now much later than we'd hoped so no more daylight foxing.
It's out with the lamp.
But first it's the bright lights of the local kebab shop protract us moth-like.
What we are going to do is put the caller out in the middle of the field and we are
just going to have a scan around with the tack light and see if we can pick up the eyes.
I have got the red LED in again.
Although the cubs shouldn't be lamp shy.
I just like using the red LED to kick off just in case we come across any wise vixens
or dogs that are still out there.
So we got the vixen a little bit earlier on.
We are going to start off there and hopefully the cubs might be venturing out and they might
be on that freshly cut field there, just looking for some mice what have you and as I say we
are just going to put a few light rodent distress call out first.
See if we get any customers there.
So hopefully we will get some visitors.
Having had a fox in daylight, it seems a foregone conclusion that we'll call some in at night
especially on this freshly cut hay crop - but the first stand delivers nothing.
The odds move out dramatically at the second stand, with mist lifting off the lake.
Our visibility is reduced but it does make the Nightmaster 800 look like a light sabre
though!
The foxes could be having a party 50 yards away and we wouldn't know what is going on.
We are getting that time-for-bed feeling - feeling slightly light headed, not from too much sun
and Italian plonk, but from the thrill of a successful bit of daylight foxing and a
buck we had to work hard for.