I was up at Harelaw the other day with the Pieman and was just wondering if someone could identify these ?
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd95/guest/131.jpg)
Mummy, Daddy and goslings. Now I know why the gosling fly is called a gosling or do I . :?
I'm seeing more and more of these. What's the score, I knew of the species but didn't realise they were native to Scotland or are they ?
They're nesting on Loch Ba at the moment.
You can eat them, probably taste better than Rainbows !
http://homecooking.about.com/od/gooseandduckrecipes/r/blgoose5.htm
Looks Tasty, its a big bird too, the book the recipe is sourced from also looks interesting :8)
apparently theres 4or five sub specie's in canada and the states
Tom
Thousands of these with us down south and I trim their numbers a bit in the winter. I'd rather eat mallard, but they can be tasty.
Very nice light grey cdc feathers round the preen gland (cul d'oie?) which is a nice contrast to darker natural duck CDC.
Tim
When were they introduced and more to the point,
Quote from: Harpo on May 18, 2009, 02:40:06 PM
You can eat them, probably taste better than Rainbows !
http://homecooking.about.com/od/gooseandduckrecipes/r/blgoose5.htm
Are they protected. :twisted:
Quote from: The Whaup on May 18, 2009, 11:05:11 AM
a pest in some places.
Just curious, but what makes them a pest?
Pheasants are not native birds either, but are still released into the wild so folk with guns can have fun shooting them. Why are non native pheasants good and non native geese bad?
Quote from: The Whaup on May 18, 2009, 09:09:13 PM
Who said pheasants were a good thing?
Quite obviously not you or I.
Apart from making damn fine nymphs pheasants are a pain in the arse and a far greater and more dangerous pest than the odd foreign goose. I wonder how many accidents are caused by drivers swerving to avoid these especially stupid birds that seem to appear in droves on our roads for late August onwards?
I would have thought that pheasants rather than these geese are the real rainbows of the air. Both are stocked for the gormless to pursue.
Are pheasants protected?
There are some Canada geese around Perthshire. Introduced by whom i do not know, maybe even spreading out from other areas. They are a pest to the farmers, as migrating species, such as Pink Foot and Greylag, leave before they do much damage to young barley ect. If Canada geese numbers keep growing, grazing on these crops probably would annoy farmers something terrible. I don't know there feelings on this though. I also know larger flocks of swans can damage young crops, but they can't be touched. It would be a brave man to try and shoo them away.
All the best Fin..
Fred
Technically all bird species are protected with two types of exemptions:
1) If they have a specified season for sporting purposes e.g. pheasant, canada geese and other game and wildfowl species
2) If licences are issued for for the culling of certain species for specific reasons. These can be closed licences which require someone to apply to Natural England or SNH e.g. cormorants, or open licences which allow anyone to carry out culling for specified reasons e.g. pigeons, crows, magpies
Canada geese can be killed under both exemptions as they have a sporting season and, for the last couple of years, they can also be shot outside that season if they are causing damage to crops etc.
Pheasants are protected outside their season which runs from 1st Oct - 1st Feb. In fairness to them they have been around since Roman times and are great birds in their wild state. Like trout it is overstocking in the wrong environment that is the problem. Lets not blame the birds or the fish for our own foolishness.
Tim
Quote from: Tim on May 18, 2009, 11:14:17 PM
they have been around since Roman times
Are you sure? I'd like to see some references to that. They come from China / Himalaya I don't remember the Roman empire stretching that far. :D I seem to remember rabbits were introduced by the Romans.
Quote from: Tim on May 18, 2009, 11:14:17 PM
Lets not blame the birds or the fish for our own foolishness.
Can't argue with that, pity we don't seem to be able to learn by our mistakes.
Wikipedia on pheasants
The bird was naturalized in Great Britain around the 10th century AD, arguably earlier, by both the Romano-British[17] and the Normans, but became extirpated from most of the isles in the early 17th century. It was rediscovered as a gamebird in the 1830s after being ignored for many years. Since then it has been reared extensively by gamekeepers. Because around 30 million pheasants are released each year on shooting estates, it is widespread in distribution, although most released birds survive less than a year in the wild. As the original Caucasian stock all but disappeared during the Early Modern era, most dark-winged ringless birds in the UK are actually descended from Chinese Ringneck and Green Pheasant hybrids[18] which were commonly used for rewilding.
QuoteI seem to remember rabbits were introduced by the Romans
Think the brown hare, but not the the blue, was introduced around that time as well.
Which goes to show there ain't much 'natural' - one way or another we are responsible for nearly every part of our environment for worse and for better
Tim