Following the victory of Wild Justice last week, a legal victory not a campaigning one, I have written a series of blogs about different aspects of the subject from the can of worms of non-compliance with existing legal requirements on registering captive gamebirds to the implications for other jurisdictions, and from the details of what DEFRA has now committed to do (add Pheasant and RLP to Schedule 9, license gamebird releases, ensure the monitoring of sites of high nature conservation importance) to the denial of some in the shooting industry to admit that they have a problem.
I’ve set out some, not all, of the evidence that persuaded DEFRA, in the end, that gamebirds were and are a threat to sites of high nature conservation importance (such as their droppings, artificially boosted predator populations, lead ammunition use) and made the point that DEFRA has had fair warning of these impacts for quite some time. These varied impacts stem from the eye-watering numbers of non-native gamebirds that are now released into the countryside and the complete lack of regulation of the rapid increase in these numbers; let me just repeat that GWCT now estimate that in 2018 49.5m captive-bred Pheasants and 10.7m Red-legged Partridges were released into the countryside for the purposes of recreational shooting.
DEFRA will soon have to consult on the measures they will introduce and you will have your say. One of the issues on which we need to push back hard is the extent of any buffer zone around sites of high nature conservation importance – 500m is not enough, the data would not allow DEFRA to get away with this (see here and here). The shooting industry will be aiming to get that buffer zone reduced and so we need a big response with good arguments to make the victory won by the Wild Justice legal case stick, and be enhanced as a result of public consultation.
One thing you can do is to keep your eyes open about where you see Pheasants in the countryside. I think that DEFRA will be swamped by home owners saying that their gardens are full of unwanted released Pheasants which have come considerably further than 500m from any release site, such personal observations will be very useful. Just keep a note of the details now so that you can use them in consultations.
If you are out birdwatching at nature reserves keep an eye open for Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges and make a note of them. Ask the wardening staff where they came from (they almost never will have been released on the site itself). Keep a note of their responses.
At my local patch of Stanwick Lakes I keep records of birds seen on just about every visit I make, a simple species list. I used those records in the first Wild Justice witness statement in the case. To summarise, my local patch is part of a Special Protected Area, the Upper Nene Valley Gravel Pits SPA to give it its full ungainly name, and on 493 visits over more than a decade 73% of those Pheasants recorded Pheasants and yet there are no release pens on the site of my visit nor any within a mile of the places I actually visit to the best of my knowledge. Pheasants get everywhere. I included similar observtions from friends and fellow birders whose records refer to SPAs or SACS and which have Pheasants recorded on them on most visits. Where do they all come from? It’s certainly not from within 500m!
Have a quick look at the list of SPA/SACs which Natural England say (page 8) are vulnerable to impacts of Pheasants and RLPs. If you are in one of these areas then keep an eye open for Pheasants particularly on moorland and heathland areas far from woodland and where Adders and Common Lizards (or Sand Lizards, or other snakes) are found.
So please keep your eyes open and notice where you see Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges. Your observations may be of great value in the coming consultation (when its coming we don’t know, but it must be soon).
This won’t be the last you hear of this subject on this blog – but I’ll try to give it a rest for a while. For one thing, rather spookily given my earlier blog, we have heard to day that the new English general licences will be released on Monday – let us hope that these too have been influenced by Wild Justice’s legal actions. And in the last few days we’ve been busy with the Wild Justice lawyers on the upcoming (mid December) judicial review of the general licences in Wales.
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My house is 1200m east of a pheasant pen, the keeper tries his best to hold the pheasants west of the pen (the estate does not own the land between my house and the pen so, naturally, they try to keep the birds on their land.)
Despite this, in order to control numbers around my house I dispatch a couple of hundred a year. It seems to make no difference, if I had the time I could account for 5 times that number.
1.5-2km is a more realistic distance their impact is concentrated on although it depends on their density. 2000 birds released at a single site will travel further than 200 birds (as there is more competition for resources driving some birds further).
Tim – that’s just the type of thing that may well be useful to feed into the consultation. Thank you for your first cvokment here.
Tim, I also find your comments, observations and your actions really interesting! A few questions. What draws/attracts such a continuous large number of pheasants that distance to your house that you could “dispatch” a 1000 birds if you had the time? If you are anti shooting/game bird release why do you feel the need to “dispatch a couple of hundred a year”? How and where do you dispatch them? Is this done as flighting birds? Are the birds you dispatch eaten/ used by you or others? Is this carried out just in the shooting season? If so, that would be 50 birds a month. You must be very good at it, and i am amazed so many birds keep turning up with the amount you say you “dispatch” without having any effect on numbers. 200 is more than many game shooters shoot in a whole season. Have you told the estate they such a problem to you and that you feel the need to take such action? I am surprised the keeper still has a job if you have and they would still be wandering that far. . . . . Mark, how would Tim’s observations and actions on an unidentified site/estate be useful to feed into a consultation? I hope you find my comments questions useful to? They are the sort of questions i hope any consultation/ review/ law would ask of such observations and actions. I look forward to Tim’s answers. . . . . . . Been interesting to read some of the comments and info from 2015. Shame that so much trust and joined up thinking for conservation has been lost since then. On both sides! . . . . .I am amazed that many of the folk who want to take down shooting and stop game bird release still have such very limited knowledge about either.
As mentioned this morning pheasants are in the gardens in Henley. I will gather some more data on this and forward it to you Mark
Mark, an excellent series of blogs following the victory of Wild Justice last week.
I would assume that costs will be awarded against Defra so that the monies we contributed can be reused to make sure Defra and NE begin do things in accordance with the law in future rather than defer to their mates.
Defra and their legal advisers will have assiduously noted your clear observations and guidelines for their future reference. You could not have been clearer.
Well done.
I’m afraid I have never bothered to record pheasant sightings but I do occasionally come across them in the heart of the New Forest!!!!!
Mark,
Surely the BTO has enough data to be able to map actual sightings to a six figure grid reference (100 sq metres) and thus be able to undertake some analysis which can, especially if release sites are known, provide an insight in to densities and distance. A heat map at a monad (1km sq) scale surely is achievable?
Am not suggesting that additional information in autumn 2020 won’t be useful but I would hope that Government would at least pay attention to a data set that was collected independently of this action.
Best wishes
Richard
Can’t help but reflect on the number of times I’ve pondered the Pheasant rearing pens and keeper paraphernalia at the turning onto the causeway at Leighton Moss. A particularly close arrangement but maybe less of a problem since pheasants lack webbed feet.
One side claiming victory, and the opposition in denial, with the press being fed misinformation,
that seems to be all there is in the news just now.
Makes you wonder who to believe.
Anyway, today saw the first misty autumn morning, the sort when, after things have cleared up a bit, your Pheasants are in places you have never seen them before, half a dozen here, maybe a dozen there, buggering off up woodsides, or following streams.
However, i suspect most Pheasants live, and die within, probably, 1km of their release site, but it is not what most Pheasants do that is being questioned,and that is why, until definitive studies
prove otherwise a precautionary view should be taken, and 500m is not enough.
Tim, i hope you have some good recipes for all those birds, dumping them in a hedge bottom would be a shocking waste.
Trapit – thank you.
I have a bird table that is about 50x100cm and it is ontop of a 2m high post, they mostly go there.
Not unrelated, we see a lot of kites and last year even had an Eagle barely 30m from the house!
Its not the best use, I agree, but it’s what we do.
I’m over a mile from a release pen but have to net all my veg garden from late summer after pheasants are released or they strip all my salad leaves, brassicas etc and scrat, dig and peck away all my beetroot and carrot.
Dead pheasants are littered along my local road which is more than 500m from a release pen. I presently have a broken front number plate, and a broken headlight cover from hitting the darn things. My friend just smashed his ‘adaptive’ front headlamp when hitting a pheasant and has a £600 repair bill.
Walk this morning on part of our local NR Llandinam Gravels which is about 800m from the nearest release pen ( which I don’t think was used this year) and just over 1km in the other direction, which was used this year. There were 200+ Pheasants on a our side of the river on the NR, this is perfectly “normal” for here and the numbers are occasionally much, much higher .
Mark
Whilst I approve of your recommendation to readers of your blog to keep their eyes open, I think that their observations could quickly lead to a scientific answer to whether or not Defra is correct in contending so confidently that there is no impact of pheasant releasing beyond 500 metres from the release pen. Here is a design for a research project from which concerned citizens which could provide the answer within a few months. For each participant, the steps are:
(1) Find a pheasant release pen that was used in 2020 and record its location.
(2) Find a place where you can record pheasant abundance that is a bit more than 500 m from the nearest part of the pen (say about 600 m).
(3) Find another place where you can do the same kind of survey, but this place is further away (say more than 1 km) from the release pen identified in (1) and also at least that far from any other release pen. These two survey sites should have the same habitat as each other (e.g. two woodland sites, two arable farmland sites) and constitute a matched pair.
(4) Do surveys repeatedly at both sites from now until (say) the end of February. These could be done using the BTO BBS method (record pheasants in distance bands – 100m from a 200 m transect walk or by doing a point count with the same distance bands. It doesn’t really matter which as long as both sites in the pair are surveyed using the same method.
These data could be analysed to see whether pheasant abundance is correlated negatively with distance from the nearest pen. Defra has asserted that it isn’t. Are they correct? By doing this bit of citizen science we could find out if we wanted to.
Very interesting I lived near Beamish open air museum for 35 years. In the locality there was a well established wood. In the locality there was a shooting syndicate. The syndicate would go through cycles of enthusiasm for raising, realising and feeding pheasants. Laterally they had a red neck partridge rearing scheme. They also dug out a few ponds to attract ducks. When the pheasants were high in numbers. I could literally predict on my walk through the wood, where the pheasants would rise. The area also saw the reintroduction of red kites and the explosive natural recolonisation of the buzzard. I was privileged to see on a hot day in August 2013…6+ red kites and 8+ buzzards on a thermal on the edge of this wood. As a bonus a kestrel too. Interestingly I spotted two members of the shooting syndicate patrolling the area. I fortunately did not witness any illegal killings of raptors. In the same area I had come across poisoned foxes and an ensnared badger next to a partridge nursery. Wear Dale is 15 miles away, where 35 years ago there was a healthy hen harrier population.