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
Sorry,Sooty you have got this wrong again,I was involves with keepers for more years than I care to remember and when off record they admit corvids are not as bad a killer as reckoned and often their control of the birds is because they are expected to do so by their bosses who in many cases are not wise to the ways of the country.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Mpiekp you always try and twist what I say ref. there are reputable shooting sources printed with facts that prove what I say and have seen so many times I do not note it down.Nowhere have I said any differently to the fact I dislike them but in fact I do not particularly dislike them just the fact that there are too many.
Woodpecker says only people who want a cull are people who breed game birds for shooting.Not so I have repeatedly stated I have no connection with shooting of any kind and there are people like myself who whether other bird lovers,RSPB or anyone else like it we believe less Magpies would benefit small birds so lets put this only shooters want cull as a myth because that is what it is.There are in fact many people in the countryside with no connection with shooting much more aggressive on the stance they take on Magpies than me.I simply refuse to see a forum suggesting that everyone agrees Magpies do no harm and we should make it illegal to do anything about them.
There are lots of things on Springwatch that are innaccurate for instance C P said some time ago that there were Sea Eagles as he put it knocking down Golden Eagles and there is absolutely no truth in this as the Goldie can quite easily hold its own.
Seaman - no not wrong spent all life on farms watching Magpies kill lots of small nestlings they simply sit on top of hedge watching where a nest is then destroying the chicks in it and lots of shoots in this area are made up with working class people with no bosses on the shoot just small syndicates and all seem to agree on the Magpie and all have a lot of small birds as strange as it may seem they like the small birds.I have simply formed my opinion from watching them on the farm for 50 years and think over that time my observations prove what I say.
I may always say as I.m still waiting to see.
Of course if the natural predators of corvids were around, this debate wouldn't even exist.
In areas where they still exist in reasonable numbers, there isn't an excess of magpies.gT
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)
michael s said: Seaman - no not wrong spent all life on farms watching Magpies kill lots of small nestlings they simply sit on top of hedge watching where a nest is then destroying the chicks in it and lots of shoots in this area are made up with working class people with no bosses on the shoot just small syndicates and all seem to agree on the Magpie and all have a lot of small birds as strange as it may seem they like the small birds.I have simply formed my opinion from watching them on the farm for 50 years and think over that time my observations prove what I say.
Whilst I disagree with what Sooty is saying on here, he is only saying what I hear quite often at RSPB meetings and other places. I always tend to point out that in nature there are predators and predated. Some of the predators are also predated upon by others and most of the predated species also take other species to survive so if we are against one species or another it is simply because of our human emotions. That usually still leaves people saying 'Yes but I still don't like magpies'. I can never win on this one.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page
It is clear that there are some differing opinions here. One thing i think it important to acknowledge is that there has always been and always will be a predator and prey relationship between animals. For more information on magpies and the law, why take a look here.
Well Bob we had better get the corvids (along with raptors) a better P.R. agent they seem to be the root of all evil in the avian world.
mpiepk.----Well of course we agree on the 11.38 pm comment and I have never done anything agaist Magpies predators.I am not really anti Magpie just the numbers have got out of hand and like all things that do get out of hand we do something about normally because once we got out of the stone age we have influenced the numbers of probably all species either by decrease or increase and the idea that they will sort themselves out is no answer at all.
Wendy S said: Well Bob we had better get the corvids (along with raptors) a better P.R. agent they seem to be the root of all evil in the avian world.