Pheasants are absolutely everywhere. Their population (no idea about the last 12 months and bird flu) is booming. Pheasants in my garden are not the local shoot’s property, esp if I want to send them an invoice. With so many shoots around here, and so many pheasants no one has a clue as to which came from where, or which are released and which are ‘wild’. You have also contradicted yourself. Latest post states, “classed as wild birds”, yet you insisted they were local shoot property and are asking what information you wrote was wrong.
Re bad form, as mentioned prev, the pheasant population in UK (subject to the last 12 months and bird flu which I'm not up to speed on), is booming. More pheasants are breeding each year, being released each year and surviving each year. It is unsustainable.
I agree re not feeding pheasants. I wouldn't feed them, but not for reasons of keeping them away from gamekeepers. Gamekeepers are understandably doing what they're paid to do. However, what is being done is unsustainable and IMO clearly wrong from an environmental point of view. There are far too many pheasants in this country, devastating many small species' populations.
Re keeper and skill, I've seen no evidence of keepers clearing huge swathes of farmland here of pheasants. They're constantly ending up on busy main roads. It is also bad form people 'fly tipping' non native species. If the population had remained stable over previous decades, that is possibly fair enough. The population though is completely out of control, at least in this area.
Like you, I end up with multiple pheasants on my property.
Knowing the location of the local shoots I can confirm that they disperse much more widely than the shooting industry acknowledge/state. Industry figures on numbers released are not robustly accounted.
Which then also leads into proximity of pheasant shoots to SSSI's, and the impacts to wildlife populations within SSSIs.
Best not mention the regular 'dumping' of shot game birds. It gets government ministers in a bit of a spin. They go into denial despite being shown evidence.
Have a nice day, because it beats having a bad one.
I have always fed wild birds (and as a result, several other species of wildlife) and the pheasants, naturally, took advantage of my 'ground feeding'. Over the decades I have had many pheasant 'buddies' and over the winters of '20, '21 and '22 I had three cock birds in particular who formed not only a close bond with each other but with me as well. I called them Walker, Little Bro and Silas. Walker was the eldest and the largest, most handsome of the three, and he was with me the longest. He got his name because he would accompany me on walks; the other two followed suit when they joined the gang. Each bird had a distinct personality and I grew to love each as an individual as well as 'the Gang of Three'. Now, after losing them to Bird Flu I miss them all.
I didn't intend to entice pheasants into my garden, or keep them there. They eat a helluva lot, my bird food bill tripled they cost me a small fortune. But to stop feeding them would have meant stopping ground feeding the other birds.. So, maybe they were the property of a shoot but how could the shoot prove that? They didn't have leg rings and I'm pretty sure they weren't micro-chipped!
As for damage to wild bird populations by pheasants.... well, I'm 71, I've lived in this house all my life and have seen many, many changes during those years. Many physical changes to the land and to how it is managed, and a good few changes in the fortunes of the wildlife. None of which can I see as being as a direct result of pheasant populations
Small wild bird numbers have continued to fluctuated. This year I saw almost a ten fold increase in the number of blackbirds; last year it was blue tits. Yet though numbers go up and down a steady constant as been kept in all the various populations. Since I the 1980's I have missed Starlings but that was due to a loss of woodland in storms. There as been a decline in the number of Skylarks due to farming techniques but many other species have thrived. In over 70 years (60 if you want to disregard childhood) I know of no damage done directly, or indirectly, by pheasants to any other bird life. 'Keepers certainly waged war on numerous creatures from birds of prey to the humble hedgehog.
Dee SA said:
As for damage to wild bird populations by pheasants.... well, I'm 71, I've lived in this house all my life and have seen many, many changes during those years. Many physical changes to the land and to how it is managed, and a good few changes in the fortunes of the wildlife. None of which can I see as being as a direct result of pheasant populations
I know of no damage done directly, or indirectly, by pheasants to any other bird life. 'Keepers certainly waged war on numerous creatures from birds of prey to the humble hedgehog.
Where has anyone said they do? If you are referring to my posts, I said small species. I didn’t specify or mean birds.
As you said, re impact on other bird populations, it is down to some humans in the industry.
Purdey3 said:The earlier post said they were classed as wild once released. I didn't see why I should contradict the legal classification, but the fact is.the shoot bought and paid for the poults, raised them and will charge each gun (depending on the shoot) around £40 per bird. Why so combative? I'm simply providing information for the original poster who obviously didn't know much about shooting. It is bad form to feed someone else's pheasants away from the shoot during the season. Just leave them alone and let the keeper (the clue is in the name) use their skill to return them and retain them on the shoot. There will be a lot about for a while after the end of the season and the keeper won't be too concerned about the cock birds then.
Read the link to the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.! Have a look what that part of the Wildlife and Countryside Act said.! Although no one takes much notice of that part of the act.
Regards,
Ian.
I saw what you originally wrote - so Good grief. I suggest you read my post again a little more carefully. Particularly the bit where I say "I didn't see why I should contradict the legal classification," You posted it and I was not going to contradict it. Trying to be helpful does not seem to get you far on this site.
I am not here for an argument. I am not supporting shooting. I am not supporting (or otherwise) releasing pheasants. I just happen to know more then the original poster and thought I would provide information.
Incidentally the idea that pheasants are routinely dumped is rubbish, as is the idea they are all raised in battery cages in the UK. There is bad practice in every industry but I have worked on lots of shoots (as a gundog handler) and have personally never come across this practice. Birds are reared in pens and taken at the end of the day by beaters or guns or they go to the game dealer. I am not saying you won't find examples of bad practice. Of course you will, and it should never happen, but it is the exception, not the rule.
Happy to engage in rational discourse, but bit fed up of the keyboard warriors.