A Google search revealed this so I have started a new thread has been suggested.
Birdies LG DU update.
Val I have not read it before. I don't think it has appeared on here but thank you anyway. Some 'debate'!.
Valerie D said: I am sure this has been posted but I cannot see it www.facebook.com/.../923617957679364
I am sure this has been posted but I cannot see it www.facebook.com/.../923617957679364
I must confess I'm disheartened at this whole thing of 'look, the ospreys are still there and everything is hunky-dory'. It could so easily have been different, no matter how well ospreys can come to tolerate humans.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Wow Valerie thanks for that. The article itself is as was expected but I had hoped for a judged view from him. What is most telling and interesting is the dialogue between him and ValGal. Like Clare I did not think the parents would leave but my worry had been if the chicks had become distressed and fledged early. What is interesting is that there was an application to retrieve the chicks that was denied in the aforementioned dialogue. If it was this nest they are referring to then it would indicate there was a very big perceived risk.
ValGal was clearly furious about the whole thing. I notice Keith Brockie made a comment about 'armchair experts' - well, Val clearly doesn't fall into that category. I suppose 'armchair experts' could apply to any of us on here who don't have the sheer joy of having breeding ospreys in their part of the world - this part of Scotland has a good number of nests and I'm afraid it comes across that some people defending the location of this festival (and the behaviour leading up to it) are being totally blase about how lucky they are to have ospreys there.
MSP Liz Smith is calling for a major review of T in the Park based on safety grounds:
www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-scotland-tayside-central-33523007
Very pleased for the Ospreys; it was lucky for some that the nest came through unscathed at all! I definitely think there needs to be a strict review of this years whole debacle, not only the implications for wildlife. P&K C should be rescinding the licences implied for 2016 and 2917, due to the inadequate provision made for the people who attended. And is anyone undertaking a comparative survey of post-festival biodiversity on the site? Maybe invertebrates are less iconic subjects for wildlife art, but they are equally important.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
I believe Keith Brockie was the 'osprey expert' advising Ellis and TitP.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Hi folks, I have joined this forum to give you my observations on the Strathallan Ospreys.
I was there, inside the arena where I found several vantage points where I could observe the nest and the male at the same time. The male was on a tree about 100m further away.
I witnessed the female leave the nest as soon as the 'music'started, and I use the word loosely, she circled the nest before coming to rest in adjacent tree. To my mind that was sufficient evidence that she had been disturbed by the noise, and an offence had occurred.
Yes, the adults didn't abandon the nest and chicks, but they were disturbed. One thing not considered was the amount of rubbish attracting gulls to the site, the male has been busy chasing them away.
The T-Shirt that Twin Atlantic produced is rather nice, and I bought one, and it is my avatar. But, you probably don't know that they are giving 5% of the sales to local wildlife projects and a further 10% will go directly to SWT Loch of the Lowes. Not everything is negative.
DKinnaird thank you so much for your personal observations, it really does help to have an unbiased point of view from someone who was there. The whole issue has been highly emotive for all concerned and it becomes impossible to be impartial.
I was somewhat surprised at his comment "Ospreys can tolerate disturbance better than any other raptor species" when so many recognised nests forbid anyone to go anywhere near a nest for fear of disturbing them. I believe folk have walked along the railway line at Dyfi to get a better view and were told in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of it.
Well done Twin Atlantic! An excellent thing to have done particularly in view of the controversy surrounding the whole event.
Thanks for your report DKinnaird; certainly more balanced compared to the highly dismissive tone and sweeping statements of Keith Brockie's.
I recently spoke to someone far more knowledgeable and expert in the field of wildlife conservation and his view was that it was a great shame that the ospreys did not in fact abandon the nest plus chicks, painful as that would have been in the short term. If that had happened, a breach in the protection of a Schedule 1 protected bird would have clearly been committed, prosecutions may have been possible, and the future of the event taking place at this particular site extremely unlikely. Moreover, while this particular osprey pair did not abandon their nest, that is not to say other pairs would have done --in many cases you cannot walk within half of a mile without them becoming extremely agitated and that is without the music, flares, fireworks, hordes of people, etc, etc.
The sad result is that this will act as a test case and provide the bench mark for other future similar events to be given the green light. In my mind, the RSPB has failed in maintaining the protection order for this species.