UKC

As we are off out for the night, I thought I would leave you with this :
http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2015/11/14/buzzards-should-not-be-protected-an...

Surprised nobody picked up on it yet, all obsessed with Mr Corbyn at the moment!

So have a read and observations, I will say that the licence system has been in place to cull cormorants on fisheries for some years without a great deal of public fuss. Normally cormorants on commercial sport fisheries (or fish farms), so the same principal situation as the above, but not so in the public's face as shooting sports.

I leave you with the above and look forward to reading some comments tomorrow.

In reply to Moley:

Not wishing to hijack this thread but why are people allowed to release so many pheasants into the countryside? I can't help thinking it must upset the ballance of the ecosystem. Not to mention they stray off the owners land.

Perhaps I can feel a bit of buzzard breeding and releasing coming on...

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Not a hijack, I suspect the whole pheasant industry will start to creep up the agenda with an increasingly industrialised (think that's the right word) rear and release programme butting into the conservation priorities mentioned on the other thread. No problem with small shoots, but if buzzards are a sufficienly important problem to be worth pushing this through the courts, I suspect there's a problem with your business model.

Cormorants are worth considering. I'm not keen on cormorant culling, but it is currently a tool of last(ish) resort. Perhaps a taste of things to come for the buzzard is that some of the fishing interests, having got licensed culls, are now pushing for cormorants (and herons etc) to be covered by a general licence Ie that they can be shot without special permission. So my worry would be that this would be the thin end of the wedge.

Rightly or wrongly, the reputation of gamekeepers is currently somewhat tarnished, I could see this being seen in some quarters as a return to the keeping ideals of the 19th century. I can also see the pigeon racing community looking at this and lobbying for an extension to peregrine as well.

In reply to toad:
Lots of things to consider on this one.
Firstly the comparison to cormorants is baseless as cormorants are a direct fish predator. Buzzards however to the best of my knowledge dont pray on live pheasants as a primary food source. Also having grown up around shooting areas, the majority of pheasants are reared in large pens in woods so again not prey for buzzards.
I have spent a lot of Saturday's as a kid and teenager earning a penny or two beating I never heard the keepers complaining about buzzards which mainly eat carrion.

In reply to Moley:

Better to cull some barbour capped conservatives and their 'wannabe'lackeys.

In reply to Dave the Rave:

Barber clad tories venturing up north to blow some pheasants to bits with shotguns whilst treating the footpaths like their private play area was the other half of my rant.

Why they are allowed to use firearms from a public footpath God only knows. Also whilst I'm at it hunts are stuffed full of arrogant toffs who I've yet to see let a car through on a public road. Still they're rich so they get away with it. Presumably that's why if a few lads drove around on dirt bikes kitted out with pistols and bull dogs shooting rabbits they'd get in trouble but hunting is still OK.

Apologies ukc, rant over.
Feeling much better now

In reply to Moley:

We're starting to get a buzzard problem here - after as long as anyone can remember where they were only passing visitors we now have a dozen or so resident pairs, almost certainly due to a lack of rabbit shooters these days. Anyhow, or problem is bird strikes at the airport - their favorite soaring grounds are quite close to the airport.

In reply to Toerag:
I think birds had wings first ?

In reply to Moley:

I can assure you a that I cull a lot more pheasants with my van than our local buzzard population will ever manage so on that basis the neighbouring estates ought to apply for a licence to cull me........

In reply to Toerag:

"Were starting to get a buzzard problem here"

Really? what sort of problems have they caused?

In reply to Dave Perry:

Getting run over by aeroplanes - a jet sucked one through one of its engines recently :-/.

In reply to Toerag:


Sounds more like Buzzards having an aircraft problem!