Thanks to the Coronovirus nonsense I've been in the happy position of being to do a great deal of shooting over these last few months which has led to a significant reduction in pest numbers.
Locally a major problem exists with Magpies, it not being uncommon to see flocks of over 20 jinking around from wood to wood.
By mere happenstance I shot one in open ground at about 50 yards and stayed put in the hide, about 10 mins later there were another 6 of the dratted things cackling around the floppy so I shot another one, another ten minutes - rinse and repeat.
Gathered up the dead, got home and had an infrequent moment of clarity which resulted in the birds being tidied up with clingfilm and chucked in the freezer. Following day lifted them out and toddled off to the edge of a nearby woodline and set out the frozen birds as decoys - result.
It seems to be that as long as I work his system over a large enough area the birds don't twig on having thus far accounted for 43 Magpies.
As a result of this I'm confident that the very local native songbird population will be much improved next Spring
Oh yeah, and 13 1/2 brace of Charlies too.
And squirrels, lots of squirrels.