Pheasants and Partridges on a farm/estate when……..?

[britt]

Big bags is nothing new, if you look up lord Ripon, triple gunning, four dead birds in the air at once

Definitely less songbirds about.
Birds feeder in garden hardly been touched.
Normally fill twice a week.

I've noticed that, but I think it's a bit to do with the huge number of berries this year. They may appear on the garden feeders later this year.

 

[som farmer]

I've noticed that, but I think it's a bit to do with the huge number of berries this year. They may appear on the garden feeders later this year.

had a holly tree loaded with berries last week, this week 0

 

[thorpe]

quoted last week no fieldfares and redwings , there here now! leices.

 

[toquark]

Pretty certain the Anti's and RSPCB will wade in, ideal opportunity for them. But perhaps we could use that, and 'forget' the gamebirds, and concentrate on the effects of flu, on the songbirds, and how the loss of 'game birds' with the associated feeding advantages, will affect them..

Use it all we want, the evidence has been clear since the year dot that well managed game shoots are beneficial for a variety of wildlife. There have been countless studies and reports stating this but it doesn’t matter a jot to those who have spun the narrative in the way they have for decades to a largely ignorant public.

…but we don’t help ourselves with the big bag days, they’re a PR car crash.

 

[Scholsey]

The biggest problem with this is tolerating the massive mood my dogs would be in, they will retrieve clays but only after extreme protest!

Apparantly an awful lot more shots are fired as there is no poor birds. I’m yet to try a full day but would like too.

Put 2 slabs through my silver pigeon on a sim day, went a bit mad, shoulder ached for a week even with using a girly light cartridges.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

read an article in our shooting mag, basically saying numbers ought to come down, 500+ days, are very difficult to justify to the gen public, especially after they have listened to twits like packup.

We have a small shoot, guest only, usually put down 250 birds, 3/4 days.

This year, our birds never happened, bird flu, fair enough. We always seem to have a fair few left, we normally shoot 60+%.

So this year, 1 day planned, in jan. As per usual all my feeders are out, seen a few broods, and pheasants about. Son and l were out and about yesterday, we counted about 70 pheasants, on about half the shoot, whole shoot is 150 acres, and not the 'best' half, along with a brood of ducks, and some partridge. Rather surprised us.

last year, we put down all black pheasants, something l will never repeat, they didn't stay, and counted for 20% of the 'bag'. But we had a lot left, and they reared broods, we saw them on a daily basis, till we cut the maize, 8 weeks ago, and haven't seen a single one since!

A couple of keeper friends are always a bit jealous of our holding ability, but as they admit, we don't overshoot, and our habitat is ideal for pheasants, once here, why would they move on, except those f-ing black ones.

We tried melonistics and pure Jap greens a few years back. Looked absolutely stunning and flew like sky rockets, but they never bothered to come back Back to good old fashioned ring necks after that little experiment

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Will never convince the packham cult though.

None so blind as them that don’t want to see

 

[Pilatus]

None so blind as them that don’t want to see

Oh so true.
Nievly ( Excuse pronunciation), I guess if we were all truthful we all tend to latch on to what we want to see.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Oh so true.
Nievly ( Excuse pronunciation), I guess if we were all truthful we all tend to latch on to what we want to see.

I always TRY to see the other persons point of view. But if that person is being unreasonable, blinkered and refusing to see any argument but their own they can expect me to be just as bone headed and ignorant as them if not worse

 

[Longlowdog]

To reply to the O.P, I always see 3 or 4 broods of wild pheasants on our wee place despite badgers, foxes and the recent sightings of pine martins. I should do more pest control as the grey partridges are an infrequent visitor and I'd like sufficient pheasants to allow friends to have a wander with a dog and gun whilst maintaining a self maintaining brood stock.
I will admit to having been on big bag days indeed I know some estates that support more than just 'keepers with the revenue from such days and will not tar all estates with the same brush, particularly the estates which beat only three or four coverts in a day and take in huge acreages to provide the birds.
The Game And Wildlife Trust have time and time again proven the gross benefit over perceived negatives regarding environmental impacts of released game birds yet I fear he who shouts loudest will get their way and when no-one is paying to play any more I foresee a drastic decline in many managed environments that will be covered up and blamed on anything other than the lack of legal, considered 'keepering and pest control.
Many do-good charities have bought functioning ecosystems, displaced the 'keepers, replaced them with spotty 23 year olds with big ideas and PHDs and laid waste to the job in 5 years after ignoring 10 generations of land managers. The Arsepeebee's notable failures to maintain function systems for bittern and 'capers are but two of the most prominent examples of what has happened so far and what will happen with much more frequency if the anti's and the gullible urban fringe with no vested interest get their way. If the current trend for rewilding moors and peatlands and demonising 'keepers and farmers on our uplands and coasts gains much more momentum I see the UK loosing all the breeding grounds for many of our upland breeding waders and other red listed birds in short order. Uncontrolled predators and engineered habitat change can bring a population to unrecoverable levels in a very brief time. The Langholm experiment proved this and yet it has been misrepresented and ignored ever since the day of its publication.
A lot of charities are keeping a lot of folk in well paid jobs by painting field sports in a bad light, it's not in their interests to let something as inconvenient as science get in the way of a good headline even if their aims are compromised.

 

[Farmer Roy]

It should be illegal to release such high numbers of alien species into the wild at the cost of the natural habitats

I know that shoots / estates / aristocracy etc etc have a long history & tradition in the UK compared to here, but I can’t possibly imagine a single instance where something like that would even be considered, let alone allowed . . .

All native wildlife is protected by law & all domestic or “introduced” species need to be restrained or contained.

we have massive problems with “feral” animals here, domestic introduced animals or “British” wildlife that were either deliberately introduced for sport & to make the place more “English” ( such as rabbits, hares, foxes & deer ) or escaped captivity or just left to their own devices, such as cats, dogs, goats, pigs, cattle, donkeys, horses, camels, water buffalo etc etc
Our local, state & federal governments, along with landowners, literally spend $$ Billions trying to control these, because they do massive environmental damage, massive financial damage & pose a HUGE bio-security threat if something like F & M or other diseases ever get into this country.

there is a lot of shooting here, but all “game” shooting is centred around the control of these feral species, certainly NOT about increasing their numbers or releasing them into the wild

 

[Longlowdog]

Even our anti's would not tolerate the removal of all brown hares, rabbits, pheasants, fallow deer,muntjac etc. The hatred of introduced and naturalised species is not as great as the hatred of folk who hunt them. Irony? Hypocrisy? Who knows but it is true here in the UK. If our government said it was going to heli-cull or poison there would be outrage manifest in marches and protests in the street, probably with the associated rioting and looting.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Governments, landowners / farmers, environmentalists, the Greens, etc etc are ALL on the same page here regarding the removal of “feral” species.

there may be some difference of opinion about the methods of removal, but the final intent is still the same

 

[Vader]

I know that shoots / estates / aristocracy etc etc have a long history & tradition in the UK compared to here, but I can’t possibly imagine a single instance where something like that would even be considered, let alone allowed . . .

All native wildlife is protected by law & all domestic or “introduced” species need to be restrained or contained.

we have massive problems with “feral” animals here, domestic introduced animals or “British” wildlife that were either deliberately introduced for sport & to make the place more “English” ( such as rabbits, hares, foxes & deer ) or escaped captivity or just left to their own devices, such as cats, dogs, goats, pigs, cattle, donkeys, horses, camelsetc etc
Our local, state & federal governments, along with landowners, literally spend $$ Billions trying to control these, because they do massive environmental damage, massive financial damage & pose a HUGE bio-security threat if something like F & M or other diseases ever get into this country.

there is a lot of shooting here, but all “game” shooting is centred around the control of these feral species, certainly NOT about increasing their numbers or releasing them into the wild

Game birds have been bred and released here for so long they are virtually native as said above dont compete with anything as well fed.

Lot of.animals you listed above are predators or things that will eat or damage native fauna.

 

[Vader]

Even our anti's would not tolerate the removal of all brown hares, rabbits, pheasants, fallow deer,muntjac etc. The hatred of introduced and naturalised species is not as great as the hatred of folk who hunt them. Irony? Hypocrisy? Who knows but it is true here in the UK. If our government said it was going to heli-cull or poison there would be outrage manifest in marches and protests in the street, probably with the associated rioting and looting.

Agree, packham cult hate shooting lot more than helping wildlife.
Packham won't agree on a grey squirrel cull to save reds.

Same as anti blood sports lot go for fox hunting. More about bashing the rich Tory toffs they see it as. They wont go trying to stop hare courses or the dog lads as they know their working class or caravan dwellers.

 

[britt]

I know that shoots / estates / aristocracy etc etc have a long history & tradition in the UK compared to here, but I can’t possibly imagine a single instance where something like that would even be considered, let alone allowed . . .

All native wildlife is protected by law & all domestic or “introduced” species need to be restrained or contained.

we have massive problems with “feral” animals here, domestic introduced animals or “British” wildlife that were either deliberately introduced for sport & to make the place more “English” ( such as rabbits, hares, foxes & deer ) or escaped captivity or just left to their own devices, such as cats, dogs, goats, pigs, cattle, donkeys, horses, camelsetc etc
Our local, state & federal governments, along with landowners, literally spend $$ Billions trying to control these, because they do massive environmental damage, massive financial damage & pose a HUGE bio-security threat if something like F & M or other diseases ever get into this country.

there is a lot of shooting here, but all “game” shooting is centred around the control of these feral species, certainly NOT about increasing their numbers or releasing them into the wild

The fact that numbers are "topped up" annually demonstrates that pheasants and partridge are not overrunning the environment into which they are released.
Ironically the species which is starting to cause concern over its increasing wild population is the wild boar, which was once native, was wiped out, and has been reintroduced.

 

[britt]

had a holly tree loaded with berries last week, this week 0

I went to cut some yesterday, for wreaths, that were loaded a couple of weeks ago. All gone. I leave hedges uncut for 2 years, leave as many as I can until the new year to leave the berries for them and this is how the little buggers repay you

 

[Farmer Roy]

The fact that numbers are "topped up" annually demonstrates that pheasants and partridge are not overrunning the environment into which they are released.
Ironically the species which is starting to cause concern over its increasing wild population is the wild boar, which was once native, was wiped out, and has been reintroduced.

feral pigs are a huge problem here which we can’t seem to get on top of

they are such adaptable animals that can breed very quickly

 

[britt]

The GWCT has done decades of work on this at the Allerton Project. Point any "antis" in that direction, if they won't read it you can call them out as ignorant on the subject.
Their basic mantra for conservation is the "three legged stool", habitat, predator control and supplementary feeding.
They are just starting a project on nest failure in waders, (so not biased towards game birds), in which they will be putting cameras on as many nests as possible to identify reasons for failure and just which predators cause the damage. But they need funds, please go to the GWCT website to donate to this project, or better still join.
YOU have the opportunity to help provide the scientific evidence that predators need to be controlled. Don't whinge about Packham and friends if you pass this opportunity by.
GWCT do have a lot of respect from Government and the Civil service, as they have such extensive research. They use science, not rhetoric or opinion or emotion.

 

[steveR]

quoted last week no fieldfares and redwings , there here now! leices.

The scandinavian pigeons and the fieldfare/redwings arrived here 10 days ago and it was great to see them. I do hope they have not arrived, to then get AI....