Odd happenings at our field

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NeilM

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Yesterday evening, my OH and I took our two out for a quick spin around the woods, as ya do when the weathers good. As we got back to the lane that leads to our field, a car pulled into the lane that we did not recognise, this is unusual as there are four fields off the lane and everyone pretty much knows everyone, what then rang alarm bells was that the driver jumped out and removed the padlock from the chain on the gate at the road end of the lane, then drove off towards the fields :confused:

H and I usually have a nice little canter back to our's but not this time, he took off like a scalded cat throwing fly bucks in for good measure. I just about got control as we reached our field only to find the chap parking his car, in OUR FIELD :mad: I asked him what he was up to and he gave me a pretty weak excuse and pretty much shot out of the field before I could stop him :eek: I then asked why he has removed the padlock and he said he did not want to be locked in. I'm pretty quick thinking usually, but this guy had me confused.

As all this is going on, a white van with two men in it also came down the lane, my OH turned her horse and went to speak with them, they were gone in no time :D

So, at this point, with a strange car in our field and a white van that we were suspicious of driving down the lane, we took both registration numbers and called the Police, plus all the other horse owners locally.

To cut a long story short, we groomed the horses until the Police arrived, by which time laughing boy has moved his car out of our lane, but is still wandering about on the lane (which is also a public footpath), but now he has a pair of binoculars and we are sure he's looking at the Gypsy Cob mare and her five day old colt that lives in an adjacent field:mad:

The Police found him and had a good chat, plus a few phone calls and it turns out this idiot is a twitcher (bird watcher) and is something to do with the RSPB. The Police also said, don't worry about the van, they had checked the reg..... Don't know what that meant, probably more bl00dy twitchers.

I don't know what kind of rare 'nether crested bobbolink' we have around us, but we were at the field until about 8.00 last night because of him.

Horse eh? You do get to meet the weirdest people because of them.
 
So WTF is he doing taking locks off fields and tresspassing :mad::mad:
dont know about blue tits, but obvioulsy a great massive large tit in your field
 
Now that would freak me out - I wouldn't have been able to leave my horses! How did he get the padlock off the gate? Presumably it was left undone?

If I were you I would buy more chains and locks and lock the gate on the hinge end too. Also put up notices that the area is in a 'Neighbourhood Watch' scheme or something.

Do you have any buildings at your field? You could put up false CCTV cameras and notices saying CCTV is in use.

Hope they really were bird watchers - just seems odd that he would take the padlock and drive into the field. I would have been tempted to lock his car in 'by accident'.
 
How wierd!! Thats really not a nice feeling - being watched!
I find - and really, no offence intended - that most 'twitchers' are a bit batty!!
Id be doing spot checks, and as suggested, bolting the place up like fort knocks!!!!
 
Well presumably the police got this guys name and address from him number plate, so how about you sue him for trespassing! ;) :D
 
They check REG numbers to see if the reg number has been seen/used/linked to any other crimes in the area. I unfortunately dont think there is a trespassing law in england so just get new locks chains etc as suggested and keeping a extra vigelant(SP) eye on things would be best thing.
Hope all is ok
 
It was all VERY bizarre.

The lock on the lane and the one on our field were both undone as we were out riding (both have chains at the hinge end as well). It was a good job the guy from the next field did not discover our twitcher, he tends to punch first and then ask questions.

The Police found the twitcher in the lane and questioned him on the spot, which is why we hung about until they came back. We were convinced it was something to do with the cob and her foal, as it would be relatively easy to break through the hedge from our side, but impossible from the other three sides of the field she is in. When we saw he had binoculars we were even more convinced.

As for him being batty, he looked like a normal professional person, I actually thought he was a vet (who had got lost) as he was driving a pretty expensive car, but his behaviour was definitely compulsive obsessive, so typical twitcher then :D

A local farmer and his OH have been keeping an eye open today and all was well this evening when my OH went to do the horses. It was a VERY strange experience though.
 
As the OH I am delighted to read that I had been successful and seen off the men in the white van as I am only an 8 stone weakling on my 14.2 New Forest chestnut mare, however as a teacher with the nickname "dragon" I suppose I have a lot of faith in my ability to stand up to these tough guys haha :)
I was just glad she didn't have a ninny moment and cause me to do embarrassing pony club kicks to get close enough to advise them of the error of their ways and bid them a fond farewell.
As NM said, all quiet tonight when I checked the Neddies and I will be there in the morning too. The twitcher was definitely odd and his bad luck the van then turned up as I got straight onto the Police. Who in their right mind would drive into a private field and leave their car unlocked and go off looking as "my wife lost her expensive watch when we were mountain biking down the lane last night". This lane has about 4 stretches and many stiles. What a load of cobblers! Anyway I got our padlock out of his car - Police said don't do that again. I thought I don't need to, I've got the lock now (heehee)
Deary me it makes me tired just thinking about it, late teas all round
 
Well, I reckon they were going to get upto something else, and it wasn't birdwatching!

Funnily enough, we've got an RSPB owned woodlands near us, and this particular activity is well known to occur up this lane!! - Maybe 'birdwatching' is another name for it!!! :)
 
All very odd and I have to say from what I know of genuine twitchers or at the least very keen proper birdwatchers (as opposed to improper ones like you seemed to meet!) I'm sure there is a proper sort of code I think they follow when it's a major twitch of something very very rare - and as hundreds can descend they are quite good in that number of organising sensible parking, giving money to local community etc for the disturbance, etc, as they're into conserving species and habitats rather than what sounded like some very dubious people driving and trespassing on your land...glad to hear the police took it seriously..
 
Wow, sounds like it was innocent enough this time. But what a scare for you.

We get the odd person or few walking down through our fields from the woods. Normally they are lost.

Somehow they always fit the same bill - small round woman of a certain age in walking breetches, check shirt, cagoule and boots, with skinny embarrased anbd hen pecked husband, with binoculars, walking ten paces behind. They always have those telescopic poles.

Normally they are simply lost, but quite how you can get lost in woods that are basically three tracks in a clover leaf pattern I don't know.

We had one a couple of weeks ago - two of them standing in the middle of the field while two of mine hoolied around them - they were quite scared. Horses look small from a distance, but close up, if you're not used to them...!

Don't you just love the Great British public! Hard to find a more ecentric and disturbed group of people anywhere else on the planet really.
 
There are a lot of people who use the footpath down the lane, most of them regular dog walkers that we know by sight. If the twitcher had parked his car in the road and wandered down the lane, even with binoculars, we would have taken no notice of him. It was the fact he pinched the padlock and then parked his car in our field!

In retrospect, it was all too visible to be horse thieves really, we spoke to him, had his car in our field, spoke to the white van men, had reg numbers of both vehicles....

You're right though Brucea, there are some weird ones out there.
 
Speak to your local Horsewatch too. they can give you notices etc to put up (bit like neighbour hood watch) The police will also have an Equine Liason Officer (ELO) that covers this sort of thing in your area, be good to get his or her name if you can and maybe make contact so she he/she knows whats going on. I would change the locks though.
 
What worries me is your horses reaction. It may just be he got spooked but if he's seen this car before - especially if it was parked in your field it may be related to an earlier incident. I'd also invest in some signs and vary the times you go to check on the horses. The people in the van obviously weren't expecting anyone to be there. Hope you get it sorted x
 
Sounds weird, but I wouldn't be too worried. We've had people from the RSPB before, although to be fair they had more social skills (came to the house, identified themselves and asked for permission to walk the land and look for birds which we were happy to let them do). If the police checked them out, the likelihood is that they are fine. No potential criminal would sit around after he had been discovered and wait to talk to the police.
 
gleek said:
Sorry dont understand puppy?
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It would be a civil matter and I would have to take a case out person to person. Only if damage is done or if a higher offence is committed like a firearms offence, does it become a criminal matter.

We're really not worried, due to the Police involvement. There was obviously some competitive bird watching thing going on.

I think my boy took off because he was cross, I was probably giving off some pretty concerned body language and he will have picked up on that. In his case, any opportunity to be a silly arse is grabbed with all four hooves!
 
Dogging! I bet that was what they were up to! We've had the misfortune to stumble upon that sort of thing before :eek: :eek:

Just a suggestion with your padlock, it would be an idea to relock it so it can't be removed, even if you don't lock the gate behind you, lock it back on itself. Stops them being removed or lost.
 
Katt said:
Just a suggestion with your padlock, it would be an idea to relock it so it can't be removed, even if you don't lock the gate behind you, lock it back on itself. Stops them being removed or lost.
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Thats what we do, but if we go on anything longer than an hour then we lock the gate behind us.

We get infested with dragon fly hunters in June- we are supposed to be one of only 2 places in UK to see this breed. They seem like a harmless bunch of mainly pensioners wielding huge cameras :rolleyes:
 
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