At the bottom of the field where i walk - someone has put a magpie in a very small cage - so small it can't even flap it's wings - it has no shelter from rain or sun and is very stressed. I have also seen 2 crows in a very small cage in similar circumstances and was told that it is legal because they are "vermin" and that it is to protect songbirds.
This seems to be a very cruel practice- please can we join together and get this made illegal
lou
This is unfortunately prefer legal. The traps are Larsen traps and corvids can be culled under a general license. That's not to say it's right, I think it is an outrageous idea, so do many others. There are currently other petitions running on this subject.
It's both what you do and the way that you do it!
You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren. William Henry Hudson (1841 - 1922)
Although the practice of trapping corvids is legal under a licence, there are rules regarding how the decoy bird should be treated including shade, food and water. If these guidelines aren't being followed then the landowner should be reported to the RSPCA
Best wishes Chris
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Makes me sick thinking about it.
Perfectly legal practice as long as rules obeyed and plenty of people back the fact that where this is carried out it is a proven fact there are more small birds.Since seeing Magpies slaughter birds in our garden will not allow it to happen 3 times.Nothing against Magpies just got far too many of them and whatever several experts say there has to be some correlation between Magpie numbers increasing in last 20 years dramatically and small birds decreasing.
These are much maligned birds but they still should have the freedom that other birds enjoy IMO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16304936@N06/
http://suffolk.activeboard.com/f528553/birds-of-suffolk/
Sooty, it is not a proven fact in the slightest, that's why this is trial cull. We've discussed this at length previously, so I will say no more, but please don't misquote.
The only case it's been proven to help is when numbers of a specie are so low they can no longer deal with natural predation.
As an aside, what predates corvids.....
Oh yeah the other things game keepers like to shoot.
Sooty, We started agreeing but on this one we won't. The BTO survey carried out for Songbird Survival clearly showed no link between magpie numbers and songbird decline. Logic tells me that removing magpies will increase songbird numbers in a localised area but all available evidence says this is not so in the general population as habitat issues kick in. I think it is a bit like sparrowhawks, attract little birds to the garden to feed or breed and we shouldn't be surprised when the predators turn up.
I see the Avalon marshes are going well at the moment. Will have to pop down again and have another look.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
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Well there is no misquote and while I have no connection with shooting it is a fact proven and quoted by the reputable sources in the shooting community that in those note localised areas(I did not say nationally)where Magpies are controlled there are many more small birds and however much anyone dislikes the shooting community and this fact if you do some research you will find it is indeed a fact.Think that all anyone else goes on is that RSPB says nationally it has no effect which obviously as it is perhaps done over less than 1% of area of countryside it will not.
You will if you do research find my facts correct.
You will see Bob in original quote I said "where this is carried out".
We saw from the reasoned debate on Springwatch that there is no evidence to show that the presence of magpies or other corvids makes any difference to the general population of songbirds. The only people who believed that the cull is necessary are landowners who breed game birds for shooting, and their interest clearly isn't in songbirds.
Sorry Sooty, many people say, is not a fact.
Every time this comes up, you come out with do your research, there has been plenty done, the bto are impartial, they just crunch numbers. You quote the shooting community as having reputable sources of more small birds, it would be nice to be provided with a link to the info.
Of course there will be more small birds if you remove a predator, they have spent years in an arms race with. This bounce effect though will be short lived, as the void created with one removed predator gets filled by another. Your choice of language "slaughter" reveals your dislike of them, there is no malice in what they do, in many ways they are like humans, they are just exploiting a resource.