Ornithology

[Fin]

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..

[Tim]

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

[Wildfisher]

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.  I seem to remember rabbits were introduced by the Romans.

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.

[Inchlaggan]

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.

[Tim]

I 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