Chris Packham at it again !

JJT

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Cumbria
Young crows will be out again soon on branches

There’s a small wood on 1 of my bits of land i’ll Shoot 200+ young crows when they come out every year
And every year there still seems to be more and more crows

If it's a wood full of nests it sounds like a Rookery.

Yep know your corvids!
Crows have solitary nests.

Rooks are known as crows around here. Crows are known as carrion crows.
 

Agrivator

Member
If it's a rook, it's a crow, and if they are crows they are rooks.

And I wouldn't think any normal farmer, or gamekeeper or shooting tenant has ever wilfully shot a Lapwing. They're one of farming's favourite birds, to the extent that even the most obsessive ploughman will plough or cultivate round its nest.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
If it's a rook, it's a crow, and if they are crows they are rooks.

And I wouldn't think any normal farmer, or gamekeeper or shooting tenant has ever wilfully shot a Lapwing. They're one of farming's favourite birds, to the extent that even the most obsessive ploughman will plough or cultivate round its nest.

Agreed. I treasure seeing them here.

I'd be surprised if the raptor explosion hasn't had a hand in their (lapwing) numbers reducing over time.

I saw a bird of prey kill and eat a pigeon in a stubble field a couple of weeks back.
 

DeeGee

Member
Location
North East Wales
Packham Craven and Heap annoy me intensely with their patronising and sometimes ill informed claptrap.

Adam Henson does bring sanity to Countryfile, and despite some overtly twee presentations is nevertheless a good ambassador for our industry. At least he might be a voice of some reason, striving to be heard amidst the raucous throng clamouring for admission to the lunatic asylum.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Packham Craven and Heap annoy me intensely with their patronising and sometimes ill informed claptrap.

Adam Henson does bring sanity to Countryfile, and despite some overtly twee presentations is nevertheless a good ambassador for our industry. At least he might be a voice of some reason, striving to be heard amidst the raucous throng clamouring for admission to the lunatic asylum.

I'd still prefer it if Clarkson presented Countryfile!
 

DeeGee

Member
Location
North East Wales
I'd still prefer it if Clarkson presented Countryfile!

Maybe so, but not if he and his mates rolled up and test drove three of the latest Chelsea tractors for a couple of hours through your field of emerging spring barley.

Anyway, the resulting compo would probably still make this a far better option than Packham and Craven blaming you and I and everyone on this forum for the decline in lapwings, decimated honey bee populations, global warming and the potentially catastrophic melting of polar ice caps.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
If it's a rook, it's a crow, and if they are crows they are rooks.

And I wouldn't think any normal farmer, or gamekeeper or shooting tenant has ever wilfully shot a Lapwing. They're one of farming's favourite birds, to the extent that even the most obsessive ploughman will plough or cultivate round its nest.

At one time in the past they were fair game and prized eating.
Golden Plover were on the list and I have both shot and eaten Golden Plover in the past. Used to be a guy on Bodmin Moor that ran specific shooting trips for Snipe and Plover (Golden)
 

Dr. Alkathene

Member
Livestock Farmer
Small wonder that so many birds and in particular ground nesting bird species are in rapid decline when crows, magpies and badgers are allowed freedom to multiply and decimate their population with impunity.

Never mind, much easier to blame intensive farming and pesticides eh?
The Curlew Country nest failure studies make interesting reading, could well apply to all ground nesting bird species?

https://curlewcountry.org/project-background/2015-nest-failure-pie-chart/

F3491806-6EAB-44A3-9BD3-632921B8C0FB.png


https://curlewcountry.org/project-background/2016-nest-failure-pie-chart/

6FDD7AF2-11EE-42AE-AD9F-B6F07C86B5FC.png
 

Kevtherev

Member
Location
Welshpool Powys
I read a piece about the decline of gamekeepers during ww1 due to most men being drafted in the army.
In those years corvid populations rose rapidly to the detriment of song birds and ground nesters like partridge and curlew.
Regularly see the damage crows and ravens do in the lambing fields evil barsteward things.
 

dowcow

Member
Location
Lancashire
And I wouldn't think any normal farmer, or gamekeeper or shooting tenant has ever wilfully shot a Lapwing. They're one of farming's favourite birds, to the extent that even the most obsessive ploughman will plough or cultivate round its nest.

If you spot a nest, better to actually pick the eggs up, cultivate through and then return the eggs. The bird will find them and return to the nest and there isn't a patch of uncultivated ground that attracts predators.
 

Dave6170

Member
We always try and protect lapwings and curlews. We are as hard on the crows and foxes as we can be and we had the most lapwings on the farm last year ever. Its all about predator control.
I was keeping an eye on a curlew chick for weeks, then 1 day it went out the gate and got killed on the road!:banghead: this field had a dyke all the way round, the gate was the only exit!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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