****8 freshly blocked badger setts found today in Heythrop country / North Cotswold badger cull zone (so far….)****

We would not expect any of our local hunts to be out mounted today… alas, they had different ideas.

So Saturday 9th December very cold sabs were on the ground first thing looking for any signs of sett blocking. With quad bike tracks in the snow 5 blocked setts were found pre hunt. Which confirmed that they were actually going to ride out in very slippery conditions.

After a few hours of unblocking in freezing conditions and dodging gamekeepers feeding their pheasants quite an appetite was built up so it was off to Stow on the Wold for some very nice muffins and an oat latte. Brunch was enhanced by some vegan sausage rolls.

At least the Heythrop had the good sense to start late, 12.30 in fact and we got picked up pretty quickly by our stalkers, however some sabs thwarted the Heythropian anti/sab tactics by running off into Eyford Park prior to them getting organised.

The usual cat and mouse games insued. They only played at hunting in Eyford park with sabs hiding up goodness knows where. Another sab (accompanied by stalker) did see a fox run to safety from where the pack were hunting. Whether or not this was the hunted fox is unknown but he went one way, the hunt another. Some citronella was sprayed on his line and as it is normal for the Heythrop to run away from being filmed going onto the line of a fox he was safe.

On then to the old railway at Naunton where they chased a fox across a main road to Cold Aston.

They packed up as the light began to fade and sabs then went to work sett checking finding 3 more blocked setts.

This week 14 setts have been found to be blocked on the same day as the hunt were out. 13 of them were in the North Cotswold cull zone. This is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg in this area…