Birds/Nests

[Khriss]

Have put up over 300 small bird boxes by now- lil buggers better use them ! K

[spuddog0507]

4 hours ago, Treerover said:

Whilst I’m not disagreeing with the point you’re making, I live on an estate that has had corvid control for decades and I’ll even pop off the odd magpie in the garden if they come in, so as much as I’d like to agree with you, I’m afraid the TEMPORARY rescinding of the General licences late April will of course not have affected bird nesting numbers . 

I think it will as there is no licences that are fit for purpose sorted out yet and how long this will take is ? how long is a piece of string ? you only have to go back to 2001 foot and mouth no shooting for 8 months and crows,pigeons and magpies just seem to explode in numbers round us, but the numbers of blackbirds,thrushes and song birds where dramatically down and that was just one breeding season,

[Treerover]

1 hour ago, spuddog0507 said:

I think it will as there is no licences that are fit for purpose sorted out yet and how long this will take is ? how long is a piece of string ? you only have to go back to 2001 foot and mouth no shooting for 8 months and crows,pigeons and magpies just seem to explode in numbers round us, but the numbers of blackbirds,thrushes and song birds where dramatically down and that was just one breeding season,

But you can now control crows if you are a farmer with livestock likely to be affected under the first of the new re-released general licences .

The forms to apply for a more in-depth licence to control all the other species are on line now and DEFRA are now in the middle of the consultation period before releasing the rest of the general licences. I have faith that everything will be close to how it was before Wild Justice flooked the court victory, which, by their own admission, surprised even them.

Apparently this whole debacle could have been avoided if MAFF and Natural England hadn’t lost a vital set of documents when MAFF handed over to NE. Unbelievable ?

[Treerover]

5 hours ago, Woodworks said:

Counting our blessings as it seems to be a good year for the birds here. Loads of blue tit's, sparrows, robins also quite a few goldfinches, coal tits and blackbirds. Not seen a song thrush yet this year and we used to have plenty of them. Only a few swallows so far but maybe some more will come up next time we get a southerly. Cant be easy flying up from Africa with the number of northerly blasts we have had this spring. The usual selection of corvids as well. Liz saw our first ever red kite last week to join our bountiful amount of buzzards.

 

We do get large swings in populations. A few years back the place was overrun with sparrows and blackbirds but hardly a blue tit to be seen. Nice mix this year

 

Edit. Forgot to mention a thriving population of wagtails one of which is driving us mad. It attacks it's reflection anywhere it sees it. Smacking against our windows, bashing on the truck's mirrors and burying them is shite and quite often whacking itself against the stainless flue on the roof. Had this little blighter for several years now or it's kids do the same

We have those in abundance, but it is the nesting or lack of it that’s being raised and is unusual . We are yet though to have a flue pecking Wagtail but I reckon you can keep that one

[spuddog0507]

1 hour ago, Treerover said:

But you can now control crows if you are a farmer with livestock likely to be affected under the first of the new re-released general licences .

The forms to apply for a more in-depth licence to control all the other species are on line now and DEFRA are now in the middle of the consultation period before releasing the rest of the general licences. I have faith that everything will be close to how it was before Wild Justice flooked the court victory, which, by their own admission, surprised even them.

Apparently this whole debacle could have been avoided if MAFF and Natural England hadn’t lost a vital set of documents when MAFF handed over to NE. Unbelievable ?

if your a farmer, apply for a more in depth licence ,, NON are of any use to any one and its costing thousands in lost revenue at the moment, 36 acre of wheat been stripped out just down road from me at what expense to the guy who owns it ? he hasent time to go cant put gas guns on as every one moans about them starting at 6am and as it reads,it has to be the land owner and who is doing the controlling, the licencing will be a lot different than it was 4 wks ago and when it will get sorted is any ones guess could be weeks or even months yet ? and this issue will break some small farmers as some are counting the cost all ready,,

[Treerover]

if your a farmer, apply for a more in depth licence ,, NON are of any use to any one and its costing thousands in lost revenue at the moment, 36 acre of wheat been stripped out just down road from me at what expense to the guy who owns it ? he hasent time to go cant put gas guns on as every one moans about them starting at 6am and as it reads,it has to be the land owner and who is doing the controlling, the licencing will be a lot different than it was 4 wks ago and when it will get sorted is any ones guess could be weeks or even months yet ? and this issue will break some small farmers as some are counting the cost all ready,,

36 acres lost to pigeons in 14 days ????
That’s 2.57 acres a day !!!!!
You lot must rely on a hell of a lot of pigeon shooting to protect your crops round your way !!!
And all the wheats pretty high so that’s baffling !!

[Stubby]

4 minutes ago, Treerover said:

 

36 acres lost to pigeons in 14 days ????
That’s 2.57 acres a day !!!!!
You lot must rely on a hell of a lot of pigeon shooting to protect your crops round your way !!!
And all the wheats pretty high so that’s baffling !!

I was thinking the same . If it were peas maybe ....

[Stubby]

Its all spring barley and winter sown rape on the chalk here .

[Treerover]

I was thinking the same . If it were peas maybe ....

Hmmmm me too. The rest is normally ok until the wheat ripens isn’t it . Unless you’re on Spring rape perhaps

[Pete W]

Here'a clip of one of our Nuthatch nests