KIlling Buzzards

[carolegif]

this is madness! they want to kill the buzzards so wealthy landowners can have pheasant shoots!
They want to kill wild birds in order to kill other birds.

You couldn't make it up!!

[jomifl]

I once visited a RSPB website to get information about crows as I was rearing a crow chick. It stated that they (RSPB) kill crows on bird reserves because they (crows) kill other birds. Of course sparrow hawks, merlins etc. don't? What a bunch of ignorant pillocks!
But to get back to your thread, who exactly wants to kill buzzards? Do buzzards kill pheasants? The problem with a lot of the huntin' shootin' crowd is that they are as ignorant as sin about the things they kill and how the eco-systems that they play in actually function.

[carolegif]

It is the government who want to kill them and the RSPB who are angry. Apparently they attack the chicks.
The amount of dog fights we have had here in the last few days with seagulls and buzzards trying to get to nests, but the parents of the chicks always seem to win!

[VHG]

Anyone who wants to shoot a bird out the sky for "fun" has to be a little sick in the head.

[razza]

Buzzards do kill pheasants,they also kill a variety of other birds,pigeons,magpies,crows,rooks as well as squirrels,rabbits etc.They do the farmers a service with killing vermin.For the odd pheasants they kill,its a small price to pay.RSPB want to prosecute anyone who kills them because they are a protected species.Once again its what the landed gentry wants.

[Frank97]

It goes on all the time, I was watching some Buzzards nesting in a tree near me the other year, then suddenly a load of Pheasant runs appeared and within a couple of weeks the Buzzards were gone. I don't think the shoot went to well though as the local fox population got the Pheasants long before the blam-blam club turned up, shame that!

[FredPuli43]

The government wants to kill them? Is there a link? Doesn't seem likely although birds which are protected under EU rules may be unprotected if the government hasn't agreed; magpies are an example, and licensed individuals (meaning the landowner and his agents) may kill those on the grounds e.g. that the magpies are affecting the game birds.

But magpies are very numerous and buzzard predation can only be small, and the bird has not yet settled in all the parts of the UK in which it was once seen

[ummmm]

It was on the news this morning..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...-environment-18186423

[ladybirder]

The Buzzard is our most common Bird of Prey. It's doing very well here I am pleased to say.

[doctordb]

Great name for a band.

[ladybirder]

Here are some facts about the Buzzard by the wonderful Iolo Williams.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...mmon_Buzzard#p00dvhtk

[Prudie]

It's not the wild pheasant chicks the govt care about it's the chicks bred on Estates for shooting. The Countryside Alliance have raised the issue as they are losing shooting revenue and Govt is considering it. Personally I think it's disgusting to stop a natural predator for the benefit of an unnatural one with dubious motivation (ie shooting for fun).

[ummmm]

Do they not eat the pheasants they kill?

[ladybirder]

Spot on Prudie.

[rowanwitch]

More pheasants end up as roadkill I supect judging by the number of bodies you see along the verge in late spring

[rowanwitch]

so maybe they need a licence to shoot motorists

[ladybirder]

Now there's a good idea.

[youngmafbog]

Much on the hunting for fun, but remarkably quite on the fact most are hung and eaten.

Pheasant is particularly nice in a vindaloo.

[WELSHYORKIE]

<< shooting estates that generate billions for the rural economy and support thousands of jobs are being driven to the edge of bankruptcy by the problem.>>

I very much doubt it - more scaremongering by the toffs