Given the high number of Gulls in my local area at the moment, anticipation was high today as I approached my local landfill site, on foot, intent on giving the Gulls a thorough look through, only to hear before I arrived at the tip edge what sounded like two blasts from a shotgun.
My intial thoughts were that it was probably a dreaded bird-scaring device, something that I have always feared the implementation of, but upon arrival it was obvious that the culprit was a bloke with a shotgun hiding along the edge of a container awaiting another circuit of the Gulls in flight.
Before I could bring the camcorder into play another shot rang out, and what was a large Gull, very probably Herring, fell from the sky.
For the next 30 mins I filmed this guy, with a combination of the 10x optical zoom of the camcorder and through the scope on 200x mag. From the footage i have his face 'banged to rights' through the scope, but although my footage shows him shooting in the air I have not captured any birds falling from the sky as a result.
I have since been told that the only Gulls on landfill sites allowed to be shot are Lesser Black Backed Gulls, and to my surprise Greater Black Backed Gulls.
Apparently therefore, and again much to my surprise, the shooting of Herring Gulls (the most abundant species at this time of year) is illegal, as is the shooting of Black-headed Gulls (the second most common sp at the tip).
Given the overwhelming number of Herring to the other large Gulls, the chances are he had been shooting indescriminantly at any Gulls within range prior to my arrival. This is further reinforced later when i saw him blatently shoot at four Lapwing flying over, which were the only birds in the sky at the time!!
Further to this, a friend I have spoken to has suggested that for a landfill to shoot Gulls under licence, the shooter has to be an employee? Is this correct? I do not know if the shooter in question was an employee, but i did see him in conversation with obvious employees operating JCB's etc, so they were aware of his presence and what he was doing?
So, what i am wondering is where do i stand with this if i go to the Police? Will I get anywhere? Does anybody on Birdforum have a similar experience and how far did you get with any action taken?
To reiterate, I have good identifiable footage of his face for ID purposes and of the Gun and footage of proof of location and of him firing the weapon, but what concerns me is that i have no actual footage of him pulling the trigger and the target falling from the sky in the same view - A non starter?
At the very least I would have thought a check for a Shotgun licence could be carried out. The fact this guy shot at Lapwing surely merits a visit from the constabulary, but this is purely my word against his, and I welcome views on this, but specifically I would greatly appreciate clarification of the law with regards to shooting Gulls on Landfills sites.
Apologies for length of post and if I have posted on an inappropriate forum.
Kind regards,
Bill Aspin.
My intial thoughts were that it was probably a dreaded bird-scaring device, something that I have always feared the implementation of, but upon arrival it was obvious that the culprit was a bloke with a shotgun hiding along the edge of a container awaiting another circuit of the Gulls in flight.
Before I could bring the camcorder into play another shot rang out, and what was a large Gull, very probably Herring, fell from the sky.
For the next 30 mins I filmed this guy, with a combination of the 10x optical zoom of the camcorder and through the scope on 200x mag. From the footage i have his face 'banged to rights' through the scope, but although my footage shows him shooting in the air I have not captured any birds falling from the sky as a result.
I have since been told that the only Gulls on landfill sites allowed to be shot are Lesser Black Backed Gulls, and to my surprise Greater Black Backed Gulls.
Apparently therefore, and again much to my surprise, the shooting of Herring Gulls (the most abundant species at this time of year) is illegal, as is the shooting of Black-headed Gulls (the second most common sp at the tip).
Given the overwhelming number of Herring to the other large Gulls, the chances are he had been shooting indescriminantly at any Gulls within range prior to my arrival. This is further reinforced later when i saw him blatently shoot at four Lapwing flying over, which were the only birds in the sky at the time!!
Further to this, a friend I have spoken to has suggested that for a landfill to shoot Gulls under licence, the shooter has to be an employee? Is this correct? I do not know if the shooter in question was an employee, but i did see him in conversation with obvious employees operating JCB's etc, so they were aware of his presence and what he was doing?
So, what i am wondering is where do i stand with this if i go to the Police? Will I get anywhere? Does anybody on Birdforum have a similar experience and how far did you get with any action taken?
To reiterate, I have good identifiable footage of his face for ID purposes and of the Gun and footage of proof of location and of him firing the weapon, but what concerns me is that i have no actual footage of him pulling the trigger and the target falling from the sky in the same view - A non starter?
At the very least I would have thought a check for a Shotgun licence could be carried out. The fact this guy shot at Lapwing surely merits a visit from the constabulary, but this is purely my word against his, and I welcome views on this, but specifically I would greatly appreciate clarification of the law with regards to shooting Gulls on Landfills sites.
Apologies for length of post and if I have posted on an inappropriate forum.
Kind regards,
Bill Aspin.
