are Buzzards really a pest?

mark richards said:
Yes, probable would take buzzard out in air,but being a raptor,possibly wouldn't get in a argument on ground ,in-case it would get injured, many predators would rather give up pray than get injured...
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Completely agree,
it could stoop it and knock it to the ground, before the Buzzard even knew what had happened to it.
Long-wings are certainly at a disadvantage on the ground, mine get twitchy when a Buzzard soars over head and they are blocked out.

mark richards said:
most probably a sprawk,
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Yep I'd go with that as well, for the same reasons you did.
Bedsides its throttling back, working out its options, you only have to
look at the wing and tail position.
 
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BillN_33 said:
That's what I thought because of the size and presents ..... but the "experts" say Mistle Thrush - I'll send you the link by PM just in case you are interested
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they are not experts, they are the same as us..they can only go off the photo,...the photo says..sparrowhawk and yes i do also visit birdforum.....:)
 
Buzzards are harmless ...

Super-Robin.jpg

Apologies for heavy crop :)
 
This subject is very interesting and is very dependant on what side you are on. The irony of killing one wild predator bird to protect another (captive reared) bird from the wild predator bird just so it can be shot (killed) later isn't lost on me. Are some birds of prey doing well due to the high volume of food available, are we artificially increasing those numbers by releasing a food source in such high volume? Are some species like barn owls naturally affected by food availability and weather variations more than buzzards and red kites? Are there other ways of controlling buzzards and red kites without resorting to shooting them?

I remember reading an article last year that mentioned how the pheasants legal status changes throughout the year to assist breeding, release for shooting to allow legally being shot and recapture at the end of the shooting season. It is a hard subject to discuss as the two sides are at polar opposites leaving little room for movement either way.
 
Didn't know so many licenses existed that Natural England can grant.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bird-licences

The irony of rearing pheasants and partridges for shooting is that only approx 15 million out of an annual release of approx 35 million are killed. An additional 12 million are injured. Stands to reason that these injured birds will in some instances support the BOP population.

There will never be a compromise. Some game keepers will continue to kill BOP illegally for the most part and those of us who think they are the scum of the earth for doing so will continue to think that. Until the law changes in England to follow that of Scotland where the landowner has to show he/she took all reasonable steps to prevent their employee committing wildlife crimes to avoid being prosecuted themselves then persecution will continue.
 
Is lead still used for pheasant shooting? If so, does eating the pellets do them as much harm as it did waterfowl?
 
Nod said:
Is lead still used for pheasant shooting? If so, does eating the pellets do them as much harm as it did waterfowl?
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Its illegal to shoot wildfowl with lead, but anything else is fair game ( as they say)

Quote from a recent countryside alliance e-letter
A measure of how desperate the RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetland Trust have become in their obsessive pursuit of a ban on all lead ammunition is the fact that they now rely almost exclusively on unproven claims about its impact on human health, despite that being outside the remit of both of their charitable objectives.
 
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Can be no dispute that lead in any form is potentially harmful to both bird, animal and human life though can there.
 
gramps said:
Can be no dispute that lead in any form is potentially harmful to both bird, animal and human life though can there.
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A #6 game load to the gut will do it every time ;)
 
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