Chris Packham at it again !

[Fiveospades]

Ever year we have lapwing (Peewit) nests on our continuous wheat ground. The last few years they have been plundered by Crows. Brown Hares were once prolific out on the marshes locally but now the leverets get taken by the Marsh Harriers. There are now large acreages that are no longer 'keepered' and as a result the balance of nature is allowed to flourish which in turn sees peaks and troughs in terms of species hierarchy. The partial control of certain species is absolutely necessary if a balance is to be achieved.
For the record ,I am not suggesting that anyone should kill a Marsh Harrier.
Mr. Packham and his associates are very good at pointing the finger at those that understand the gravity of situations much more than they do.
If the court rules in favour of the action brought against Natural England and NE have to issue specific licences to those that genuinely want to protect their livelihoods I am wondering how much will a licence cost, just who is going to police the new system. What is more worrying is how long will it take for a licence to be granted if the countryside stewardship payment backlog is anything to go by. I fear that my crops will be decimated long before a request for said licence will even be considered.
Go away Mr. Packham you have seriously got this all wrong.

 

[Tractor Boy]

I’m not a shooting man or a fan of Chris Packham but it does sound a bit ridiculous saying without humans managing predators the system gets out of balance. No wonder the public disagree with this.
When we used to rent the farm out for a shoot the gamekeeper was obsessed with predator control. He even said that if you shoot a fox two come to it’s funeral. I couldn’t understand if that was the case why he even bothered.
I’m not trying to pick an argument, just don’t understand the obsession.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I’m not a shooting man or a fan of Chris Packham but it does sound a bit ridiculous saying without humans managing predators the system gets out of balance. No wonder the public disagree with this.
When we used to rent the farm out for a shoot the gamekeeper was obsessed with predator control. He even said that if you shoot a fox two come to it’s funeral. I couldn’t understand if that was the case why he even bothered.
I’m not trying to pick an argument, just don’t understand the obsession.

It's that he and his ilk dislikes predator control, then blames "modern farming practices" for any falls in the population of prey species, rather than the increase in predator population.
He can't have it both ways.

 

[Will Blackburn]

We used to have buzzards nesting on our farm till we stopped rearing pheasants. We couldn’t have both so we had neither.

 

[Steevo]

I’m not a shooting man or a fan of Chris Packham but it does sound a bit ridiculous saying without humans managing predators the system gets out of balance. No wonder the public disagree with this.
When we used to rent the farm out for a shoot the gamekeeper was obsessed with predator control. He even said that if you shoot a fox two come to it’s funeral. I couldn’t understand if that was the case why he even bothered.
I’m not trying to pick an argument, just don’t understand the obsession.

Nature would happily balance itself out if humans stopped meddling. The problem is (some) humans claim to support re-wilding, yet in areas other than where they have decided they would like to live.

Humans "manage" the are where they live (lighting, waste, roads/traffic etc.) and this conflicts with nature. In fact, much more so I would suggest than farmers ever do. Plenty of my fields can go a month without a human/tractor setting foot out there.....animals left to themselves the whole time other than a max 1hr visit. Can't say the same for roads, cities, national parks etc.

 

[Raider112]

My bird feeders have only used about a quarter of the seed they normally do during a winter, ok it's been a mild winter but the difference is that we have a Sparrow Hawk round here. I like to see Raptors but I wish someone would shoot the bloody thing for the sake of the small birds. We used to have quite a colony of tree sparrows till this year.

 

[Jason g]

Yet again another change within the law is due. Us legitimate shooters help protect crows and are very aware of the impact of vermin they would soon change there tune if there wasn't a crop because it had all been eaten by vermin. Crazy fools with an influence

 

[Fiveospades]

Don't forget that humans are animals as well, we just think we are superior.

 

[icanshootwell]

Is it legal to shoot dickheads?

Punching,s ok, he,s just got one of those faces that deserves a few.

 

[michael N123]

Are lapwings what us more northern people call peewits? If so why does he keep making a fuss about them as my farms covered in them especially in spring

 

[DeeGee]

Are lapwings what us more northern people call peewits? If so why does he keep making a fuss about them as my farms covered in them especially in spring

Send them here, we rarely see lapwings nesting now: same with the curlews that used to be a common sight here half a century ago.

We are not big users of agri chemicals on our small arable acreage so I honestly don’t think ‘intensive farming’ is to blame here, but rather the largely uncontrolled proliferation of raptors such as buzzards magpies and crows, as well as badgers and perhaps to a lesser extent foxes.

 

[Scholsey]

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.

A crow in crowd is a rook a rook on its own is a crow is what I had drummed in to me as a wee gun toting tot.

 

[crazy_bull]

They always seem to compare song bird numbers to levels in the 40's 50's 60' 70' etc

I am sure it is no coincidence that these exceptionally high levels of song birds was down to more rigorous predator/corvid control.

Yet they are wanting bird numbers to return to those levels whilst protecting the predators.

Bonkers.


C B

 

[Henarar]

They always seem to compare song bird numbers to levels in the 40's 50's 60' 70' etc

I am sure it is no coincidence that these exceptionally high levels of song birds was down to more rigorous predator/corvid control.

Yet they are wanting bird numbers to return to those levels whilst protecting the predators.

Bonkers.


C B

well you can't educate meat

 

[theboytheboy]

Have lapwings monitored by rspb here. They positively encourage us in trapping and shooting corvids and foxes. Would they admit that in their publicity?.....doubt it.
Bet they are happy to blame farmers in the media for the decline though.

 

[Brisel]

Have lapwings monitored by rspb here. They positively encourage us in trapping and shooting corvids and foxes. Would they admit that in their publicity?.....doubt it.
Bet they are happy to blame farmers in the media for the decline though.

Yep. We're an easy target. Blame farmers whilst not looking at the bigger picture.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Very pleased to see that Packham has stepped down as President of BTO. BTO are a reputable science-based, calm and considered organisation who do some extremely good work. Packham was a bad choice of president in my view so glad to see him gone as he is too controversial and uncouth for such a well respected body.

 

[Steevo]

Have lapwings monitored by rspb here. They positively encourage us in trapping and shooting corvids and foxes. Would they admit that in their publicity?.....doubt it.
Bet they are happy to blame farmers in the media for the decline though.

Very pleased to see that Packham has stepped down as President of BTO. BTO are a reputable science-based, calm and considered organisation who do some extremely good work. Packham was a bad choice of president in my view so glad to see him gone as he is too controversial and uncouth for such a well respected body.

It's amazing all these people/organsations manage to keep things out of the public view like this and are able to keep presenting just the image they wish the pubic to see. Newspapers love a scandal or pointing out half truths.

 

[A1an]

I really wish these mother f**kers would leave the countryside to country folk and stop using it to massage their MASSIVE egos .

If every farmer put effective bird scarers on all of their crops wtf is the ever increasing population of birds going to eat?

They would be better using their £30k to do some good use. I'd hate to think of the money this pair of knobs have wasted on lawyers etc.

Have they ever stepped back and looked at the state this country is in? We have homeless people on nearly every main street in the country begging for money, we've got people using food banks to get by and this pair are chucking people's hard earned money around to save a few crows and pigeons? Its all gone wrong.

Sorry for the rant but it just seems to be one thing after another.

 

[Devon James]

Doubt anyone is watching but he's on a boat bobbing about near Mexico stroking dolphins or whales. Dun matter which. Just waiting for a whale to get p***** off with him and smash him out the boat