Foxglove-September 24 2008

Much of our ferreting involves large stands of nettles, brambles and the like, but the bracken around these buries had been recently mown as part of the control process, and we were free to ferret in comfort. As we arrived, we saw four rabbits hop into one of the buries, so our spirits were high and we wasted no time in getting our nets set and the ferrets into their transmitter collars.

The dog, pleased to be back at work, dipped her nose above the rabbit holes, telling us that there were rabbits inside. She is too much the professional to give away her presence by nosing into the bury or scraping with her paws, knowing that the less disturbance, the more the rabbits will be likely to bolt once the ferrets go down.

It took us an hour to net the run of buries and then the ferrets went into the first one we had prepared, which had then been quiet for the longest time.

We took up our positions on the edges, making sure that the wind did not blow our scent into the rabbit holes, and we waited, silent and unmoving. The dog had frozen into stillness also, which is not something you can train but part of the inborn skills of the predator.

Normally we do not have long to wait but these buries are deep and it can take some time for ferrets to reach the lowest levels and start to push the rabbits upwards towards the surface.

This time it was close on 20 minutes before we had the first rabbit in the net, held just right by the dog until one of us could get across to take it. The dog is schooled to damage neither rabbit nor net, and as soon as the rabbit is in human possession she leaves it without a backward glance, intent on predicting the next bolt.

This she does by listening to what is going on underground, feeling the vibrations through her feet as ferrets and rabbits run along the subterranean tunnels, picking up the puffs of warm scent as they near the surface, and striking like a cobra as the rabbit hits the net.

Her help is invaluable, for sometimes rabbits shake off the nets or manage to push through them, sometimes a net snags and does not purse properly, or the peg pulls out of bad ground. But the rabbit is still there, quite unharmed, held in her long jaws. Here, take it, I have work to do.

We do not notice the time passing as we work across the buries, though we are gathering an increasing crop of rabbits. Once we come to the end of our sets and have to decide whether to pack up or do some more, we realise that our backs and knees are aching and we have done a lot of work.

But we started early and there is still time for more. The ferrets are full of eagerness to continue and the dog is already standing over the next bury, her dark eyes glowing, one front paw raised and her tail waving, for here there are indeed more rabbits.