I write this piece on the day lockdown has been eased a little – for us shooting types it appears that providing we conform to the various factors involving social distancing we will, in many cases, be able to pursue once more the sport we love.
In the countryside the wildlife seems to have thrived, in my own case I’ve never seen so many pigeons in and around my garden, interestingly they have become far tamer than usual which doesn’t bode well for my top fruit garden, unless there is a reduction in numbers!
Mixed reports have been coming in regarding the rabbit population, in some areas there has been an upsurge in numbers in others, my own included, the population has crashed again. Personally, I have a suspicion that VHD has changed again; when the VHD2 variant arrived there were quite a few young rabbits picked up dead, but looking normal. Now, for the first time I and many others have been finding adults rabbits, again showing no signs of illness, dead in fairly large numbers. This is a first for me and I would be interested to hear from readers who have experienced the same thing.