I’m thinking of how to respond to the Defra call for evidence – click here – on gamebird shooting (as readers of my monthly newsblast will know). I’ve already penned something on the overall death toll of the tens of millions of released birds – click here. Here are some words on distribution, numbers and…
Category: REARED GAMEBIRDS
This is evidence (1)
I’m thinking of how to respond to the Defra call for evidence on gamebird shooting (as readers of my monthly newsblast will know). Although BASC has told its members to ignore all that stuff about evidence and just send their thoughts to Defra (what a horrific image that brings up) we can do better than…
Foxes eat gamebirds
I’m grateful to Dr Nathan Williams for sending me a link to this study he carried out as part of his doctoral research on the diets of Red Foxes in central southern England. Once I got past the phrase “Anthropogenic resource subsidies” which are non-natural sources of food made available deliberately or unintentionally by people…
RSPB calls for licensing of gamebird shooting across the UK
Illegal bird of prey killing must end, urges RSPB Birdcrime report The Birdcrime report, which reviews the past 15 years, reveals 1,344 birds of prey were illegally killed between 2009-2023, with crimes continuing to emerge. These criminal acts target threatened species including Golden Eagles, Goshawks and Hen Harriers. The majority of incidents are associated with…
Sunday book review – The Return of the Grey Partridge by Roger Morgan-Grenville and Edward Norfolk
This is the story of the recovery of Grey Partridge on the Duke of Norfolk’s land at Peppering on the South Downs (that’s Arundel Castle on the cover). It is a beautifully written tale (by Roger Morgan-Grenville) of a successful species recovery project based on the landowner’s enthusiasm for having a wild partridge shoot for…
More on the risk assessment on gamebird releases
The risk assessment published yesterday by Defra, but presumably done by APHA, is vaguely interesting but not spectacularly well-informed. It’s not that well-informed because no-one has invested in studying the process of disease transmission of avian flu to, within, or from wild birds. So there is quite a lot of guesswork dressed up as something…
Les faisans et les squamates – evidence from Belgium that Pheasants reduce reptile numbers.
Pheasants eating reptiles, but not simply eating them, eating them in such large numbers that they disappear from areas of ‘massive’ releases. I’m assuming that the main mechanism is from devouring the snakes and lizards rather than the other possible mechanisms but, to be fair, this study cannot distinguish mechanisms. You could say, that since…
Gamebird releases and bird/poultry flu – an astounding risk to take
Today the RSPB calls for a moratorium on gamebird releases, because of bird/poultry flu, in an article in the Guardian. I’m interested in bird flu and in gamebirds. Thanks to Wild Justice’s activity on gamebird releases I’m quoted at the very end of the article. The quote I gave the Guardian was slightly longer than…
Sunday book review – The Secret Life of the Adder by Nicholas Milton
This is a very attractive and interesting book about a species which, these days, I hardly ever see. When did you last see an Adder? I haven’t seen one for years and yet in my youth they were noticeably commoner. As were signs saying ‘Danger Adders’ which I always thought were put in places (eg…
Normally…
This is one of those familiar x-rays of a shot raptor – see the pellets? I’m not at my best when identifying dead birds from x-rays but this is apparently a Red Kite. And Gloucestershire police would like anyone with information to step forward… I noticed that someone commented on this subject that they wouldn’t…