Regular pest control visits to clear rabbits from beneath a cricket pavilion are beginning to show results, with fewer signs of fresh digging on the cricket pitch. Impressed, the park’s area manager asked me to check out two more pavilions this week. Arriving in daylight, the first pavilion sits on a concrete base, but air gaps in the wooden structure showed little evidence of rabbit droppings and I moved onto the second pavilion, which is supported on pillars above the ground. Like the original, this is infested with rabbits, runs and scrapes showing on both sides, while the area around it has that rabbit hutch aroma.

Surrounded by trees looking out over the pitch, I settled down to wait for the sun to go down and the rabbits to come out. The Walther scope on the Career gathers light better than my eyes and a sudden movement from the back of the building showed two small rabbits had emerged, the crosshairs standing out against the grey fur. The first shot tumbled the rabbit, which kicked it’s way back under the building, the other diving for cover. Five minutes later a large rabbit come out. Tracking the crosshairs along its body for a head shot, it moved, then stopped. Crosshairs on again, I squeezed the trigger just as it moved again. Missed. As the light faded it became more difficult to see, some rabbits came out and faded away like ghosts. I’d left my lamp at home, but I’d knocked down enough for a refill of the magazine, which takes eight Bisley Magnum .22 pellets.

Looking to my right I could now see activity on the cricket pitch and circled back to lie out under a tree only feet away from the front of the building. This was enough movement to scatter the rabbits back under the pavilion. I waited. First out was a young kit, the pellet passing straight through and hitting the wood work. An adult came out and froze. Sighting for a head shot, it dived back. At this range of ten yards, a chest shot would have done the trick, but old habits die hard. After a further twenty minutes it was too dark to see again and by the light of my phone, gathered up those rabbits that I could find.

At times it had been fast and furious work, much like a shooting gallery, many of the bunnies too small even for a burger, but pest control is pest control. I refilled the magazine and walked down toward the other pavilion, which is back lit by the nearby car park. As I approached a head popped up and I fired. Rabbits scattered from unseen places. I’d hit my target.

There was no close cover and I settled down alongside a tree with a view of the front and one end. These would be longer shots up to 35 yards, but illuminated by the sodium lights of the car park. It was the shadow of the first rabbit that I saw, almost invisible to the eye. A good size, it was sitting up, a perfect target for a rested shot at 30 yards. It went down kicking and I put in another head shot to make sure. Ten minutes later another movement 25 yards away potted another small one.

A bus pulled into the car park and sat with the engine running. Time to go home after a busy evening. This park was hit hard last year by myxomatosis, but it has soon recovered with a baby boom.