"This week has been as busy as any other week at this time of year. My last few release pens are nearly finished, and I just have the pop holes, fox grids and electric fences to put up. Oh, and maybe cheap radios and flashing lights at night when the poults go in - my partner thinks it sounds more like a disco!

This might seem a bit over the top in the way of security, just to keep dear old Mr fox from eating your very expensive pheasant poults, but a fox will dig under, clamber over and even climb trees to gain entry into your pen. Ask any keeper and he will have had or will know someone who has had a fox in the pen. It wouldn’t be so bad if the fox only killed one or two for his supper, but they don’t stop at one - they just keep going until most are dead, sometimes many hundreds.

The daily routine of checking the larsons and tunnel traps this week has been an absolute joy, as the weather has been so glorious I have been doing them in the early morning or evening. At times like this it’s hard to believe we all share this very small island with 60+ million other people!

The tunnel traps are still catching grey squirrels and rats, although they are starting to slow up a bit now. I have only got two larson traps going now and they are picking up the odd crow or magpie a week, but with most wild broods of pheasant and partridge hatched off now it will be soon time to put them away until next March.

I don’t know whether it’s me, but there seems to be more ticks around this year; I am picking two or three off every dog per day - and they are Frontlined. Nothing worse than when I am in the shower and trying to remove what I think is a stubborn speck of dirt from a leg, arm or whereever the little blighter has decided to dig in. At that point, a few choice words are said and without too much fuss the bloodsucking little so and so is plucked out.

On a more serious note, if you are bitten be aware that more ticks now carry lymes disease, for more info go to the link below."