Neil-T
Moorlands Macro: Close up and personal....with bug
Good to have you back mate, hope you enjoyed your time on Skoma, sounded like you did on the telephone. Look forward to some of your pictures in the gallery. Speak soon. Neil.
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Birding In Staffordshire (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter Upland Birder
- Start date
Good to have you back mate, hope you enjoyed your time on Skoma, sounded like you did on the telephone. Look forward to some of your pictures in the gallery. Speak soon. Neil.
russell toon
Well-known member
Berryhill
3 Whinchat present this morning.
Wheatear still coming through in good numbers with 24 recorded today mainly around the Whitedoor paddock.
This has been the best ever Spring here for Wheatear with over 400 recorded so far this year.
Russell
3 Whinchat present this morning.
Wheatear still coming through in good numbers with 24 recorded today mainly around the Whitedoor paddock.
This has been the best ever Spring here for Wheatear with over 400 recorded so far this year.
Russell
Upland Birder
Birding On The Edge
Wood warbler this evening (7pm) at Hawksmoor:t:
Dean
Happy Birding
Dean
Happy Birding
Upland Birder
Birding On The Edge
A Spotted Flycatcher was seen in Booths Wood, Churnet Valley on Saturday:t:
Dean
Dean
russell toon
Well-known member
Berryhill
Weather warming up this morning found Nick and myself having a whinge about it being too hot.
The usual Berryhill suspects about in good numbers.
4 Whinchat - 3 around the Viewpoint paddocks and 1 one the burnt grass.
17 Wheatear
1 Hobby
1 Lingering Yellow Wagtail
Russell
Weather warming up this morning found Nick and myself having a whinge about it being too hot.
The usual Berryhill suspects about in good numbers.
4 Whinchat - 3 around the Viewpoint paddocks and 1 one the burnt grass.
17 Wheatear
1 Hobby
1 Lingering Yellow Wagtail
Russell
Westport Lake
Late visit this morning produced a drake Ruddy Duck , one each of LRP and Common Sandpiper little else of note.........Steve :-C:-C:-C
http://staffordshirebirding.blogspot.com/
http://steveseal.blogspot.com/
Late visit this morning produced a drake Ruddy Duck , one each of LRP and Common Sandpiper little else of note.........Steve :-C:-C:-C
http://staffordshirebirding.blogspot.com/
http://steveseal.blogspot.com/
Attachments
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chris23565
Well-known member
Don't be to depressed Steve, the Ruddy Duck is the 1st of the year for Westport, we managed to catch up with it on our return, thanks for letting us know.
:t:The Moore-hen
Association of Satirical Birders & Ornitholigists
'Twitching' Ruddy Duck might be a thing of the future if it carries on as it is...we will be ignoring the 'common' stuff like Little Egret in our hunt for the elusive Ruddy Duck...i have a secret breeding site i certainly won't be reporting to the RSPB that's for sure...:t:
Old railway lines down packmoor this morning produced good numbers of whitethroat and willow warblers, easily into double figures for each. Couple of blackcaps, a swift, 3 swallows, 1 male bullfinch, 1 singing skylark and plenty of the usual. Only one thing of note really, a raven, which is probably one of the two that flew over my house recently, they really are getting everywhere nowadays.
Adam
Adam
ScottPetrek
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret saying this but...
Doesn't protecting a breeding site of a species which is deemed being in need of population control kind of silly? Surely its for the greater good of something else if control is the only method? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go out of my way to let the RSPB etc know but I can't see the point in protecting the site?
I don't think Ruddy Duck is a problem in the UK, so I don't fully understand the RSPBs control measures for the UK when I don't think loads of our population head to the continent anyway? :smoke:
Don't like the idea of killing wildlife, but sometimes its for a greater good? eg. Canada Geese?
Hopefully I haven't alienated myself - so please don't witch hunt me down! I didn't mention Sylvia undata! :-O
I researched the ruddy duck for a presentation a uni (ended up doing one about badgers and TB instead though as a mate also did the ruddy duck one). It was quite interesting really as there seems to be little evidence that our ruddy ducks go to the continent and hybridise with the white headed duck. When you add to that the costs of culling ruddy duck (or most things for that matter) it does seem to not be the best of ideas. Anyone know if the ruddy duck cull is still going on en masse or if it is up for review sometime soon? Quite sure I read somewhere it had been reviewed and scaled down a lot or is up for review and is likely to be stopped, but I am not 100% positive.
I did read somewhere that the decision to cull the ruddy duck in the UK was to kind of keep the peace with Spain, so some think it is all political. I could not possibly comment upon such things, but it is something I did come across.
Given peoples point of view on introduced species such as canada geese and grey squirrels it does seem like we feel we can pick and choose which alien invaders we want to keep. Surely all introduced species should be treated equally? All would have some impact upon their ecosystem as all eat something, so might at least decrease food available for a native species, if not eat a native species. It is just some introduced species and their effects are are not deemed as good/bad as others.
Personally I feel that Ruddy ducks do not belong here and it is only because they don't kill a native macro organism that we think they are doing no harm. At the same time, killing them for hybridising with a species in Spain, when evidence suggests that it is not UK birds doing that, seems the wrong reason to start shooting them. It really is a tough one to call. If their population goes unchecked here, they might get to Canada geese proportions (population wise) and start out competing native species for food or breeding sites. It really is something that needs monitoring, but the reasons given at the moment for culling them seem wrong to me.
Interesting topic introduced species, there is a list a mile long of where it all goes wrong (brown tree snake in Guam possibly being the worst ever). It is also one of them things that has people equally split between killing introduced species and letting them get on with it. Might ruffle some feathers this one, it did at uni.
Adam
I did read somewhere that the decision to cull the ruddy duck in the UK was to kind of keep the peace with Spain, so some think it is all political. I could not possibly comment upon such things, but it is something I did come across.
Given peoples point of view on introduced species such as canada geese and grey squirrels it does seem like we feel we can pick and choose which alien invaders we want to keep. Surely all introduced species should be treated equally? All would have some impact upon their ecosystem as all eat something, so might at least decrease food available for a native species, if not eat a native species. It is just some introduced species and their effects are are not deemed as good/bad as others.
Personally I feel that Ruddy ducks do not belong here and it is only because they don't kill a native macro organism that we think they are doing no harm. At the same time, killing them for hybridising with a species in Spain, when evidence suggests that it is not UK birds doing that, seems the wrong reason to start shooting them. It really is a tough one to call. If their population goes unchecked here, they might get to Canada geese proportions (population wise) and start out competing native species for food or breeding sites. It really is something that needs monitoring, but the reasons given at the moment for culling them seem wrong to me.
Interesting topic introduced species, there is a list a mile long of where it all goes wrong (brown tree snake in Guam possibly being the worst ever). It is also one of them things that has people equally split between killing introduced species and letting them get on with it. Might ruffle some feathers this one, it did at uni.
Adam
ScottPetrek
Well-known member
I know Blithfield were culling, I think as part of an Enviroment Agency project? I think there was a review of the culls over previous years? Try:
www.conservationevidence.com
There might be a project summary on there, or possibly Google Scholar?
Nick Smith
Member of the Staffordshire Bird Club
Defra came to Blith. I don't think anyone at Blithfield were involved.
russell toon
Well-known member
I would like to think that the RSPB had good evidence for the culling of Ruddy Duck.When I was birding in Castilla la Mancha in south central Spain I met a birder who was involved in monitoring the White headed Duck population and he was of the opinion that there was no threat from Ruddy Duck.
Ringed-necked Parakeet could also be a possible future target.
Russell
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