Please could you answer some questions to help with my dissertation? Thanks!

[ChloboBaggins]

Hi all,

I am currently doing a university project on bird of prey persecution and would be very grateful if you could help by filling in my questionnaires and reading a short piece of text that I have prepared.

For some background info - I have lived in the North York Moors alongside many farming and gamekeeping families and, being a BSc Environmental Science major at The Open University, I have noticed that these communities are often villainized in the media when the topic of bird of prey/raptor persecution is discussed. Therefore, my project aims to highlight the genuine thoughts that these communities hold regarding raptor persecution. Whether they are for or against such activities will not be judged (especially as all questionnaire responses are anonymous), this is a personal opinion and one that I am sure is valid given the experiences that you have encountered on your land. Additionally, my intention is not to group these two communities together as my results will help me to understand the differences in opinion (if there are any) between the two industries.

If you get the opportunity, I would really appreciate it if you could please:

1. Fill out Questionnaire #1 as honestly as possible.
2. Read the following piece of text that I have prepared.
3. Fill out Questionnaire #2 as honestly as possible. Only answer the question if your answer has changed in any way from your previous response after reading the aforementioned text.

**As a word of warning - both questionnaires hold the same questions. This is intentional and will help me gather the information necessary.**

Thank you very much and if you find any errors within the links, please let me know in the comments and I will do my best to fix these ASAP.

Best,
Chloe

 

[Derrick Hughes]

My only worry is that there are so many. Like seagulls on a tip here , small birds and mammals don't stand a chance

 

[ChloboBaggins]

Understandable worry, Derrick! Is there a certain species that you witness hunting on your land most often?

 

[Dry Rot]

The usual badly designed and badly thought out questionnaire. Do these people ever attempt to complete their own surveys and see how they actually work in practice? Evidently not.

I have been an active and practising falconer since my early teens and I am now 81. When I started, one of the first birds I got was from a gentleman in Yorkshire who used to go around the local gamekeepers collecting young merlins to save them from destruction so he could pass them on to falconers. That was before they were protected by law in, I think, 1962. My merlin was shipped to me from Yorkshire to my local railway station in South Devon by British Rail for the sum of 25/- (£1.25) inclusive of rail freight.

Because of the paranoia about "raptor persecution", gamekeepers keep quiet if they have nuisance raptors on their ground so instead of being trapped up and donated to falconers (or move to where they might be acceptable), as in some European countries, they are probably quietly destroyed. In my opinion, it is unreasonable to expect gamekeepers and farmers to tolerate nuisance predatory species at their own cost and with no recourse to legal management. I know enough about predators to know that they can become a serious problem. If no provision is made (practical and legal) to deal with these cases, "raptor persecution" will continue. It is about time conservationists used commonsense and met those who care for the countryside half way. Far too many poseurs and 'do gooders' with their fingers in the pot these days.

Yeah, I'm a grumpy old man and intend to remain so!

 

[ChloboBaggins]

The usual badly designed and badly thought out questionnaire. Do these people ever attempt to complete their own surveys and see how they actually work in practice? Evidently not.

I have been an active and practising falconer since my early teens and I am now 81. When I started, one of the first birds I got was from a gentleman in Yorkshire who used to go around the local gamekeepers collecting young merlins to save them from destruction so he could pass them on to falconers. That was before they were protected by law in, I think, 1962. My merlin was shipped to me from Yorkshire to my local railway station in South Devon by British Rail for the sum of 25/- (£1.25) inclusive of rail freight.

Because of the paranoia about "raptor persecution", gamekeepers keep quiet if they have nuisance raptors on their ground so instead of being trapped up and donated to falconers (or move to where they might be acceptable), as in some European countries, they are probably quietly destroyed. In my opinion, it is unreasonable to expect gamekeepers and farmers to tolerate nuisance predatory species at their own cost and with no recourse to legal management. I know enough about predators to know that they can become a serious problem. If no provision is made (practical and legal) to deal with these cases, "raptor persecution" will continue. It is about time conservationists used commonsense and met those who care for the countryside half way. Far too many poseurs and 'do gooders' with their fingers in the pot these days.

Yeah, I'm a grumpy old man and intend to remain so!

Hi Dry Rot,

I'm sorry that you feel that my questionnaire is badly designed. I appreciate your feedback and I will be sure to reconsider my questions to ensure that they are suitable.

It's interesting to hear how you obtained your merlin. I noticed that someone suggested on my questionnaire that passing trapped raptors on to falconers is a reasonable alternative to their demise, would you also agree that this option should be less "demonised"?

I am fully aware of the "do-gooders" that point fingers and lay blame without understanding the many factors involved in such decision-making. As I mentioned in my original post, researching raptor persecution often led me to pieces of subjective media that villainized gamekeepers and farmers alike. Hence, my aim is to speak directly to members of those communities to gain their personal perspectives, rather than relying on the opinions of people that may have never stepped foot outside of the big city.

Again, I really appreciate your feedback! The world needs grumpy old men so I'm not complaining

Best,
Chloe

 

[Ffermer Bach]

all done.

 

[steveR]

My only worry is that there are so many. Like seagulls on a tip here , small birds and mammals don't stand a chance

Kite and/or Buzzard?

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Kite and/or Buzzard?

wasn't there a red kite feeding place up the road from you Derrick? I know I always seemed to see lots of them coming up the hill from Talsarn

 

[steveR]

wasn't there a red kite feeding place up the road from you Derrick? I know I always seemed to see lots of them coming up the hill from Talsarn

I assumed that was what he was alluding to

 

[ChloboBaggins]

all done.

Much appreciated!

 

[Robt]

Done,
Notes..... Your survey is very one sided and also encourages the reader to want to increase the number of raptors. I dont so felt like i was being ''anti and bad boy'' by answering so....

 

[PostHarvest]

I used to work with someone who as a senior member of RSPB actively supported the reintroduction of Red Kites. Later he admitted that he regretted their introduction as the RSPB had assumed that they would spread out across the country. Instead, due to the setting up of feeding stations and the actions of "well meaning bird lovers", they tend to concentrate in districts where they decimate the populations of small mammals and ground nesting birds. But of course the decline in these species is all the fault of farmers isn't it??

 

[Ffermer Bach]

it would be great, when there is a survey, to have a copy of the resulting report/project/dissertation/findings to be posted too. After all we put our time and effort in to help with answering the questions, however, I am yet to see a copy of the results posted.

 

[ChloboBaggins]

Done,
Notes..... Your survey is very one sided and also encourages the reader to want to increase the number of raptors. I dont so felt like i was being ''anti and bad boy'' by answering so....

Hi Robt,

Thank you for completing the questionnaire and for the constructive feedback. You should know that this was not my intention but I can definitely see how it could come across that way. In a perfect world, I would go in and amend the questionnaire to help eliminate the one-sided nation of the questions. However, with answers already coming in, I fear that this would make the initial responses invalid to the results and I would hate to waste peoples' time. Regardless, I will ensure to mention this as a limitation of my work as I'm sure that this could influence the answers that people give.

Thanks again for the feedback!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Understandable worry, Derrick! Is there a certain species that you witness hunting on your land most often?

Red Kites . When we are mowing they blott the sky out

 

[Derrick Hughes]

wasn't there a red kite feeding place up the road from you Derrick? I know I always seemed to see lots of them coming up the hill from Talsarn

Yes , Buzzards have been here for centuries. Red Kites are the invaders
Reminds me of what they did to the Indian Nation . Moved in overrun everything and left them with no food [emoji24]

 

[ChloboBaggins]

I used to work with someone who as a senior member of RSPB actively supported the reintroduction of Red Kites. Later he admitted that he regretted their introduction as the RSPB had assumed that they would spread out across the country. Instead, due to the setting up of feeding stations and the actions of "well meaning bird lovers", they tend to concentrate in districts where they decimate the populations of small mammals and ground nesting birds. But of course the decline in these species is all the fault of farmers isn't it??

Hi PostHarvest,

Unfortunately, it has been a common occurrence in the past that conservationists have made crucial mistakes when reintroducing species by not considering all of the ways that this could have a negative effect on the overall food chain (e.g. decimating the small mammal and ground-nesting bird population). As most of us know, acting from "a good place" isn't all that matters. It was only two weeks ago that I was reading about M&S' plans to release 30 million honeybees into the British countryside and the catastrophic side effects this could cause. I'm hoping to take a systems view in my work, taking a look at the issue from every angle rather than holding the (what I believe to be close-minded) belief that it's "all the fault of farmers", because that gets us nowhere!

Thanks for contributing to the conversation

 

[ChloboBaggins]

it would be great, when there is a survey, to have a copy of the resulting report/project/dissertation/findings to be posted too. After all we put our time and effort in to help with answering the questions, however, I am yet to see a copy of the results posted.

I completely agree that this should be done. I'd need to double-check this but as far as I'm aware, we aren't actually allowed to share our full report. However, I haven't seen anything about sharing general results/findings so I think this should be ok. Once I have confirmed with my university that this is OK, I will post my results in this comment section.

 

[steveR]

I completely agree that this should be done. I'd need to double-check this but as far as I'm aware, we aren't actually allowed to share our full report. However, I haven't seen anything about sharing general results/findings so I think this should be ok. Once I have confirmed with my university that this is OK, I will post my results in this comment section.

That is a surprise. Surely you hold the copyright/ownership of your work??

I know I helped a guy some years ago with his dissertation that took quite a lot of work on my part. Not an issue as I knew I would see the end result, in it's entirety.

Good work too... got a First. Which is the nearest I will ever get to one...