I wonder what the campervan-interned weekend urban naturalists would make of this? This just has to end in tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaMa1WHZOUs
Just wait until they re-introduce Lynx and that idiot Roy Dennis wanted to include Wolves and Bears as well.
I just can't figure out 2 things.
1. Why would anyone choose to introduce sea eagles to a highly populated area like the I.O.W?
2. Why don't they shoot a few crows? Even the RSPB do that. Since when were crows a protected species?
Quote from: admin on April 28, 2021, 12:01:30 PM
I just can't figure out 2 things.
1. Why would anyone choose to introduce sea eagles to a highly populated area like the I.O.W?
2. Why don't they shoot a few crows? Even the RSPB do that. Since when were crows a protected species?
First of all I take exception to the concept that introducing sea eagles in the IoW is any different to introducing them anywhere else. I think this is one of the problems with re-wilding in the sense that the people doing it are keen on the idea that it only impacts a few people in a rural area so this impact doesn't matter. My view remains that all re-wilding should start with a 5 year pilot project in the parks of urban areas before it can be expanded to more rural areas as both places have exactly the same factors - a human population and the environment isn't like it was in the past.
In terms of crows then I honestly don't know, maybe they are shooting them and can't keep on top of the numbers? Crows are a weird bird to shoot in the sense that they are really stupid in one way, groups of them will keep flying in having watched their mates in the previous group getting shot, but they are also really clever in another way in the sense that they remember stuff and once they've had a bad day they often won't come back. That farm looks an ideal candidate for shooting them at long range with a rifle but this is a very slow, time consuming, process as you might only get one or two in a day. Trapping them may also be an option but, again, this is a big job when you've lots of crows.
Quote from: caorach on April 28, 2021, 12:15:07 PM
one of the problems with re-wilding in the sense that the people doing it are keen on the idea that it only impacts a few people in a rural area so this impact doesn't matter.
No doubt about that at all. The trouble is those making the decisions are not impacted and are backed up by politicians who only answer to their unaffected urban electorate one day in every 5 years.
Maybe Laxdale can shed some light on how easy it is to obtain a licence to shoot crows, personally I would shoot any I could get close enough to if they were "scoping" my flock.
Horrible birds.
I would also consider setting traps (as well as shooting), to get as many of the bastards that I could.
I don't think the above is really very PC but I don't care, I have seen way too often what these birds do to give 2 hoots about people's feelings for the lovely little birds.
No licence needed for a hoodie.
In the Western Isles, NS ill grant a licence to shoot ravens pretty much on the strength of a conversation on the phone.
Which is a massive contrast to the attitude of NS on the east coast. There, the raptor mob have called ravens "honorary raptors", so the damage ravens cause goes unchecked as it is almost impossible to get a licence to kill them.
Just more anti landowner nonsense from the RSPB, etc.
Ravens are quite rare in the east, certainly compared to the west but they are more common than they once were. Hoodies are seldom seen either, mostly carrion crows and rooks over this way. I didn't think there was any licence requirement to shoot crows.
I have seen videos of ravens marauding lambing sheep and nesting birds filmed in Tayside, Angus and Caithness. As numerous as starlings, and the word is the population is increasing exponentially.
"Evil on wings" as I like to call them.
We occasionally see ravens when we are out and there is one pair breeds on the cliffs at St. Cyrus on the reserve. 30 years ago we only ever saw them after the stalking season apparently they moved from farther west to feed on the gralloch left on the hill.
I'm sure ravens are protected as they keep them in the tower of London and they say if their are no ravens left in Britain that will mean the fall of the British empire, not that there's much left of it.
While writing this ch5 Inside The Tower of London a bit about the raven master on now.
A
A really efficient, but to some, barbaric way to cull sufficient numbers of crows is branching in the nesting season. Farmers around kinrossshire did it when I was a nipper. Probably a banned practice now.
The child's song about 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie was about Rooks, a common country recipe in England up to the 1960's, I've eaten them before. I believe Packham got a change in the law last year to make all Corvids protected and a licence is now needed, that might just be in Englandshire though.
There is listings table here for a General Licence in the parts of the UK.
https://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/generallicences/
Would be interesting if the IoW sea eagles start taking smaller dogs and pussy cats !!!
Quote from: Bobfly on April 28, 2021, 10:07:04 PM
Would be interesting if the IoW sea eagles start taking smaller dogs and pussy cats !!!
What about the risk to small children?
Quote from: tomcatin on April 28, 2021, 11:30:34 PM
What about the risk to small children?
:lol: The IoW should be safe enough. The eagles only pose a threat to the children of Scottish Gamekeeper Association members.
There are plenty videos showing sea eagle damage on fully frown sheep, and also of them latching onto the backs of red deer calves. (the talon marks were in the same place on the sheep).
Sea eagles are perfectly capable of tackling a small child.
Townie types rejoice in their introduction and marvel at their magnificence.
People that have to live with them respect their killing efficiency. (After you have seen a thousand, they do not merit a second look).
Farmers and crofters just want them dead and gone.
Quote from: admin on April 29, 2021, 08:07:33 AM
:lol: The IoW should be safe enough. The eagles only pose a threat to the children of Scottish Gamekeeper Association members.
Gamekeepers do not care about them. They can be a handy distraction to fill in time with their townie clients on shite days.
It is the crofter and farming groups that want sea eagles dead.
There is currently a lot of noise about trying to get more people involved in crofting. ie, small scale farming of a variety of animals. Mostly part timers needing a second job to survive. The same people promoting crofting (and Gaelic/culture, whatever that is) also hate tourism and are on the edge regarding racism to incomers.
Then there are the tourism providers who deny all wrong doing by eagles and see eagles as a way of putting ££££s in their pockets (and fuck the crofters).
It is an interesting "debate" that is slowly heating up, and is pretty much the opposite of the narrative pushed by the raptor persecution fruitcakes.
Quote from: Laxdale on April 29, 2021, 08:22:08 AM
The same people promoting crofting (and Gaelic/culture, whatever that is) also hate tourism and are on the edge regarding racism to incomers.
This is the inevitable consequence of electing people who sow the seeds of hate and division. Sadly Scotland, a once happy place, is full of it now.
"Civic racism".
This copy and paste says it all -
"If you think it's bad for curlew, black tailed godwit are far worse. We have at most 50 pairs mostly on RSPB reserves in the Nene washes and they are predated by foxes, crows, red kites and Marsh harriers to the extent that they can no longer produce fledged young. They are now taking the eggs and brood managing the chicks releasing them at fledgling stage. Without this completely artificial arrangement the bird would be extinct in Britain in a few years.
At some point the conservation industry must decide between taking hard decisions and saving ground nesting birds on the one hand and pretending that habitat manipulation can solve everything so that they can make loads of money on the other. Perhaps I'm wrong and they have already made the decision to go for the money.
Holland is even worse as predator control is at a level that would satisfy even Wild Justice and the Black tailed godwit, Holland's national bird is effectively doomed to be predated out of existence."
You see the problem is it looks like those who make the decisions seldom stray far from the radiator in their comfy office in Edinburgh or Inverness. Local people should be consulted - not have a veto - but they should be consulted.
Those affected must be able to veto decisions that will cost them money.
The problem is that they do not.
Minority rights?
Crofters are now more of an endangered species than bloody eagles.
It's lefty - green - PC Scottish politicians who are to blame. They are more likely to listen to the likes of Greta Thunderbird than to local stakeholders whom they appear regard as ignorant, ill educated or even worse Tory landowners and their supporters. I mean how many crofters and farmers do you know who have a gender studies and climate change degree? :lol:
QuoteI mean how many crofters and farmers do you know who have a gender studies and climate change degree
Most crofters and farmers do have that degree, its just not written on a piece of paper based on 4 years of classroom theory.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
https://greens.scot/news/scottish-greens-reveal-national-parks-plan
Quote from: Laxdale on April 29, 2021, 06:56:11 PM
:lol: :lol: :lol:
https://greens.scot/news/scottish-greens-reveal-national-parks-plan
:lol: :lol: :lol: indeed.
M goodness with all those generous giveaways, nationalism of this and that proposed by the SNP and Greens exploitation of Scotland's oil must surely be back on the agenda to pay for it all - or perhaps they just think we really are thick and gullible. :lol:
A copy and paste -
"Managed to start getting ewes and lambs out of fields and out to their hill, not much to eat out there but they need back to their territory. 5 lambs now have vanished without trace. I like the wee ewe in the picture, she lambed about a week ago, I congratulated her, apologies for the lack of grass and told her they'd all be getting shifted asap, today she came in with her crew to get tick control for her lamb but no lamb with her and there was no dead lamb to be found in the field, she'd been in, if there had been she would have been with it, she's a good mum but she is blind now in one side of her udder so career is over. The other pictures are of a lamb I eventually found today on the hill because I could see a very upset ewe was telling me something was wrong, this was a strong healthy fit lamb that was put out about a week ago, this lamb did not just die, its back is full of talon marks, I would say this lamb was probably lifted whilst sunbathing and dropped, then eaten in front of a very distressed sheep. Lambs are getting taken from Kilmory too. These birds are far too densely populated. I am going to email SNH to find out their long term plans for these birds so I know if I should bother making any long term plans, are they just going to keep increasing with no thought to any other wildlife or people's livelihood. I've already spent a lot extra on feed this spring and now I'm probably going to spend the summer feeding the sea eagle. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be here because that will never happen but there needs to be some kind of control put in place, have they even planned for the reintroduction being too successful, if its natural for them to lift lambs then when nature blows the nest out of the tree or the chick falls out then that should be left and no intervention, its nature after all. It's hard enough, every year weather brings different challenges that we have to deal with but this challenge is so upsetting and there isn't a single thing I can do about it."
Reminds me of the guy who was feeding his sheep in a small Sy croft last May, despite there being plenty of grass on his home crofts in S Lochs. He would lose too many lambs if he put them out before they were 2 months old.
This is not a viable solution long term, and I fully expect eagles to be getting bumped off left, right and centre in the next year or two.
Quote from: Laxdale on April 30, 2021, 07:56:49 AM
are they just going to keep increasing with no thought to any other wildlife or people's livelihood.
I think we already know the answer to that.
What got on my mammaries was statements about how many "millions of quid" reintroduction brings to the local economy.
I asked for the data and got a "we estimate, it is expected, hopefully, data from the USofA Parks and Recreation, in Germany" bullcrap answer.
OK, "How much was paid out in compensation for livestock losses?"- "Releasing this information would be a breach of commercial confidence."
What actually benefits tourism is difficult to pin down. These astonishing figures that get bandied about I suspect are in part wishful thinking and a means of justification. Perhaps more so in some areas than in others. For example I know lots of folk who visit Mull regularly precisely because of the wildlife - seals, otters, golden and sea eagles etc. Similarly I don't know anyone who goes to Mull for the fishing.
Sight seeing, hill walking, mountaineering and the beloved NC500 are probably the biggest drivers of Highland tourism - how much money they bring in is another question.
Value estimations are fraught with overlaps I reckoned having spoken to data collectors assessing forestry values eg. mountain biking trails and so on. Each clipboard data collector asks where are you from, you say Edinburgh or wherever, they ask how far is that, you say 150mls, they write it down and attribute a travel and time value, plus ticket or permit charges etc. etc. Actually you are up for 3 days and did four things the day before and will do 2 things that day and your mileage that day was 8 miles and the whole trip really should go over many activities and, by the way, you do not attribute any extra because you happened to go through Glencoe.