Carnage on our roads.
On a recent drive between Lerwick and Sumburgh I counted eleven birds either lying dead by the roadside or spread across the tarmac as a bloody mess of squashed flesh, guts and broken feathers. As well as several breeds of gull there were at least three shalders and one tirrick. On many occasions I have seen birds that have been badly injured by motor vehicles wandering in fields to suffer a lingering and painful death.
I don’t believe for one minute that any of these birds were accidentally hit. There seems to be a belief held by many Shetland drivers that all birds alighting on the roads are legitimate targets. These drivers may think that they are ridding Shetland of vermin by using their motor vehicles as lethal weapons. In fact they are using their vehicles to cause death and suffering and leaving a bloody mess in their wake.
Judging by the reaction from my customers the trail of carnage and suffering left by motorists on our roads is doing nothing to endear Shetland’s image to our visitors during the tourist season.
Allen Fraser
Shetland Geotours, Meal, Hamnavoe, Burra.
Down here in the Yorkshire Dales we always get loads of road kill at this time of year but over the years I have never got the impression that most of it was deliberate.No doubt the odd driver might try to bag a pheasant but these occasions are few and far between.In my opinion most of the road kill comes from either young animals who have not yet learnt the dangers out there, love struck adults with other things on their mind or adults totally bent on feeding young.Not sure hat is considered vermin in your area or what shalders or tirricks are but presume they are local names,gulls,like pigeons very rarely feature in road kill in our area but others may have different views.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
For those outside of Shetland who may be interested.
Shalders = oystercatcher
Tirrick = Arctic tern
Hard to believe anyone could consider either of these vermin, it would be very sad indeed if anyone did target them intentionally. Obviously if anyone was found to intentionally cause harm or kill a wild bird they would be committing an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
However, the chances are the birds simply didn't get out of the way in time or didn't give the drivers a chance to avoid them. A sad but mostly unavoidable consequence of the modern road system. I think the best way to proceed would be to speak to the local authority for the area to see if some signage can be put in place to warn drivers if there are hot spots where birds congregate on or near the roads. Most responsible drivers take notice of such signs and adapt their driving as a result.
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Thanks for the translation Ian,new names to me.
With the 19 ducklings and 2 mothers run over right outside our property, it's a busy B road, we are on S bends that encourage the boy racers but most of the deaths were avoidable, there's the old myth of if an animal is in the road keep going which is hogwash and then there are drivers who anticipate nothing, yap on the phone etc and then the roads, unfit for purpose with verges and hedges right at the roads edge, winding all over the place to avoid that unmoveable of objects, arable land, leaving people no time to avoid animals that appear out of nowhere when that does happen, all the deaths here are in the road, during the day and the ducks are very visible, some excuses for it but not as many as get used, some is intentional too, believe that. OUr 12 year old escorting the ducks and ducklings waved his slow down sign at a boy racer and got the finger in return, that's the sort of twot that kills intentionally.