Rook control

[Bruce Almighty]

One of my neighbours has 2 rookeries in his garden & they are driving him mad.

Legally what can you do ? & what can't you do ?
No doubt there'll be a few do-gooders complaining, although whilst food is not quite so readily available to them ,they might whinge less

I thought shooting the nests at 8pm next Thursday would be a good tribute to NHS workers !

 

[TripleSix]

Narrow choke, 32grams of no5

 

[ajcc]

Couple of good air guns and shoot “branchers” or subsonic 22 location dependant.? Mid April?

 

[An Gof]

We had many Rooketies here when I was a child. My Grandfather used to record the number of nests each year. Sadly they are all but gone, down from the peak of 100 neat to the mere 5 that remain. I would be incredibly sad to see them go. Rooms have been under pressure so I would suggest you did nothing. They will be hatched and fledged by about 3rd week in May so not much longer to wait.
Legally with the changes in the General Licence I m not sure there is much your householder can do. Taking eggs or damaging nests is illegal so deliberately firing the gun through them would be potentially exposing the culprit to a charge. All IMHO

 

[Bald Rick]

Isn't there enough death about at the moment?
Once the traffic is back, probably won't hear them again ?

 

[neilo]

I doubt it would be considered ‘essential work’ just now. I heard yesterday that a couple of lads had had their licences revoked by plod for shooting rooks on Spring corn drilling, citing that it was ‘non-essential’.
I think I’d argue that one personally.

 

[Exfarmer]

One of my neighbours has 2 rookeries in his garden & they are driving him mad.

Legally what can you do ? & what can't you do ?
No doubt there'll be a few do-gooders complaining, although whilst food is not quite so readily available to them ,they might whinge less

I thought shooting the nests at 8pm next Thursday would be a good tribute to NHS workers !

Disturbing nesting birds is illegal and could easily earn a jail sentence!

 

[Redfish]

Rooks have been removed from all general licences, to be legal they'd need to apply for a individual licence from Natural England.
edit - Sorry only removed for us in Wales. Tight choke and 36g of 4s and crack on!!

 

[ajcc]

Live life without the internet and make your own moral, ethical decisions......
Ask on the internet and likely to get latest general licence fiasco with cwis packham, Tony juniper, Carrie Symonds and all trying to dictate how you behave in your own garden. If ever the law was an ass the law according to modern day inter web is better ignored.
Rooks I always consider the farmers friend.....until they are pitching in standing corn or uprooting seedlings or cracking eggs. It’s a balance and the man on the ground is much better placed to make decisions than inter web masses or chinless suits in faraway cities.

 

[Exfarmer]

Live life without the internet and make your own moral, ethical decisions......
Ask on the internet and likely to get latest general licence fiasco with cwis packham, Tony juniper, Carrie Symonds and all trying to dictate how you behave in your own garden. If ever the law was an ass the law according to modern day inter web is better ignored.
Rooks I always consider the farmers friend.....until they are pitching in standing corn or uprooting seedlings or cracking eggs. It’s a balance and the man on the ground is much better placed to make decisions than inter web masses or chinless suits in faraway cities.

While I would agree with your sentiment to a certain extent, rooks can be a serious nuisance both at seeding and pre harvest. They can also make a dreadful mess under their nest sites.
However for someone to take the only real action against rooks in his garden would not be seen as any justification, under the general licence as I understand. As I point out it could certainly result in a heavy fine and possibly jail today.

 

[Dry Rot]

Be careful about setting off fireworks as a few rockets up amongst the nests of a dark and stormy night could lead to the eggs getting chilled and that might be illegal if intent can be proved.

 

[Danllan]

While I would agree with your sentiment to a certain extent, rooks can be a serious nuisance both at seeding and pre harvest. They can also make a dreadful mess under their nest sites.
However for someone to take the only real action against rooks in his garden would not be seen as any justification, under the general licence as I understand. As I point out it could certainly result in a heavy fine and possibly jail today.

No justification at all as the law stands, not for being driven 'mad', irritated or what have you; he can just google the licences to see this.

Anyway, shooting too close to a road - 50' from centre - of any sort is illegal, so if the rookery backs on to a land he'd have to be careful. There are more stringent rules for fireworks in this regard, see below...

Be careful about setting off fireworks as a few rockets up amongst the nests of a dark and stormy night could lead to the eggs getting chilled and that might be illegal if intent can be proved.

No idea of the situation in Scotland, but in England & Wales that has often been tried and the Crown came out best every time. There seems to be a judicial consensus that explosives are not a humane or sensible way to try and control 'pest' species; why on Earth could this be?

As for intent... I'd not feel too happy if it was me asking a jury to believe that there was no link between the rooks' presence and the fireworks - the Judges get arsey too if you try and take the p!ss in Court, mostly.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

Thanks for the replies.