Corvid cull looming

AnnaM said:

A friend of my wife has a petition against this appaling cull running here..... http://pixiepaj.com/wildlifevillage/?page_id=782

It is RIGGED - I went to sign it and my email address has already been used to sign up!  Speaking with others I find that the same has happened to them.  Someone has been cherry-picking email addresses and signing the petition in their name - this is NOT ON!  I thought we lived in a fair and democratic society?

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I have forwarded this information and the matter will be looked at ASAP.

This is the first I've heard of it.

I was the one who posted that message Anna.

Frank

 

Scottish landscape and nature photography by Frank Baird - http://www.focushighland.co.uk

mpiekp said:

I notice pixiepaj has facebook, twitter and google buzz buttons, if you were previously logged into any of these they will fill in the info on certain partner sites.

But surely they can't do that without your permission?  Frankly, I'm stunned at the situation!

You'll find sections about partner sites in T&C's for all of them. My money would be on facebook though, they seem the most lax and prone to changing settings with out asking...

It is just a suggestion, not a definate :)

I would say it's more likely than people stealing addresses to use for a good cause, I mean I doubt there's a digital robin hood, people are to selfish nowadays

Hi All,

Just read a more recent news report on this issue, saying that Sonbird Survival is now asking the public for money to carry out the cull!

Heres the link: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/songbird-survival.html#cr

Jon3012 said:

It makes me laugh that people on a RSPB site can speak out against culling something. In the real world the RSPB cull as many animals for basically the same reasons as any game/land manager.

Deer are culled to prevent habitat destruction, foxes to save ground nesting birds, gulls poisoned for the same reason. Don`t make me laugh and say that culling magpies and crows is terrible have a look in the mirror. Its just the RSPB don`t go shouting out that they shoot deer and kill gulls because that wouldn`t make a good press release.

It has been recently recorded that the numbers of ground nesting birds on the RSPB reserves are at very low levels due to massive predation pressures whereas reserves with controlled predator levels have an abundance.

My final point is that if i see anyone else write`nature is balanced` i will scream. Humans got rid of that balence a long time ago with motorways, farming to feed millions and millons of people, factories, cities the car and i could go on. All we can do now is manage what we have farmers and shooters have more resources to help the wildlife of this country than the RSPB can ever dream to have.

SO TRUE! :D

Jon,   I think you have totally misunderstood this site.  The people on here have made their own individual comments about this issue.  As such they can be disagreed with as much as you wish but they are not making comments on behalf of the RSPB and they have a right to make their own comments.

Yes the RSPB does control species in specific circumstances and that information is openly available.

I do think you have also misunderstood the research that was undertaken (unless you have seen something I haven't).  Quite clearly predation can impact on ground nesting birds and in the short term culling that predator would work.  Research (RSPB and GWCT have papers on this) shows that this is only short term and that in the long term the habitat is the controlling factor that has increased predators or decreased others. That is the main issue that then needs to be addressed.

Bob, i think i have put forward my individual view on this, being on the RSPB website is just a handy tool to put accross my point that it does seem 1 law for some and another law for others. I believe from a lifetime in the countryside being a pest controller that habitat AND predator control need to go hand in hand these days to create what we all want to see. People are far to quick to blame farmers and landowners in general with large fields and all that. For 500 quid for a ton of oil seed rape i would be quite tempted to get rid of a hedge but most have gone down the HLS road.  

There are many RSPB sites that create the perfect habitat but have very little breeding success due to predation. There was a paper recently that addressed this(if only i could remember who by). I control predation on my little patch of this green a pleasent land and have seen some great success mostly with Grey Partridge whereas a little up the road the woodland trust have a patch with roughly the same habitat with nothing like the variety. Long term predator control i believe is the way to turn. We do not have the space in this country for reserves like africa, on my patch we rely on small to medium patches of cover to support populations.

To say the  RSPB control methods is openly available i feel is a bit like the freedom of information act, its there but you have to look for it. Ive never seen it advertised thats for sure and i believe if the RSPB were that transparent then it would lose some members.

It has been observed over a period of 60 years in this area that at the beginning of this period there were many many hedgehogs. In fact at night it was impossible not to see some around this estate which borders a very large parkland. Although badgers were in attendance in small numbers they did not seem to prey on the hedgehogs so as to reduce their numbers for quite a number of years but it changed long ago. For around 40 years there have been no hedgehogs at all. Badgers however have multiplied to the extent that regular sightings are seen of them througout the estate in fact there is a sett under my shed. I am fully aware that foxes that are prevalent as well as badgers will kill hedgehogs and I firmly believe that between them the predators have made the hedgehogs extinct in this area. Therefore whilst these predators are the hierarchy in the food chain they do not have the intention or the intelligence to realize they have extinguished their food supply.  

I believe that this trait is abundantly clear as regards the Crow and Magpie species in regard to the fact that they have intelligence but they are not intelligent enough to prevent the extinction of their prey species. The habitat locally has not changed since 1927 so this fact cannot be blamed upon the reduction which is quite alarming in  the small bird species. The food source has increased due to many people especially since the war ,feeding the birds.  It is difficult to not direct blame to the Corvids that seem to be the most abundant species locally. There is a difficulty with culling the corvids in the surrounds to the Park because the Parkland has a reservoir of some 250 Carrion Crows and plenty of Magpies. If culling were carried out it would be found that this would be  very  very time consuming indeed.  It seems obvious that if the Corvids are kept within reasonable numbers the small bird population may well return to what it was before the Corvid explosion because locally nothing else seems to have changed.    A very pronounced anomaly is the complete eradication of tree sparrows locally,but then again sparrow hawks have been seen on occasion. Quite some years ago now ,I saw a sparrow Hawk kill a great tit male and then the female desert the box . I had success in rearing two out of the seven young ( no appreciable feathers) but it involved 5 o'clock starts but I felt it was worth it.

Quite what the ideal  numbers of Corvids are I have never seen the recommended number but I would wager it would not be a large number as there is at present.

Other areas in Nottingham are now complaining of a reduction in small garden bird numbers but large Corvid numbers so it appears the ballance of nature that some of the do-gooders keep mentioning do not cut it.

Observations have been made in the farmlands of North Wales and have been compared to this urban area. The situation re plenty of Corvids in Wales and also  numerous and abundant species of small birds there seem to suggest the farmland habitat is the most nurturing for all birds. The urban area seems to require the Corvids to be kept to a ballance if the small bird population is to continue to be enjoyed.

So I would say  I'm for an overall cull in areas that warrant  it if the situation is found to be similar to this area. The Larsen trap is humane if it is used as per the Law but please don't cloud this issue as regards it's cruelty because it is cruel out there just look on youtube--  Sparrow Hawk  v  Magpie -- That is cruel in the very true sense of the word.