BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1654209" data-attributes="member: 36432">This rang a bell with me so I went back to the primary legislation for UK: that is, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.  This has been amended to take account of CROW and devolution but remains essentially intact.  I make no comment on the situation in Eire as I do not know what covers it.In UK it is quite clear.  Schedule 2 part 1 contains the list of quarry species.  In the original Act the wildfowl part of this was:Duck, TuftedGadwallGoldeneyeCanada GooseGreylag GoosePinkfooted GooseWhitefronted Goose (in England and Wales)MallardPintailPochardShovelerTeal WigeonAnd then only outside the close season.  The quarry list has been amended since then e.g. Brent Goose is an absentee from the original list that is now quarry.However, other wildfowl on the British List including all vagrants, have the general protection afforded to Robins, Wrens etc - that is to say, it is illegal to kill them.  This would include non-vagrant species such as Smew (which might be mistaken for female Goldeneye except with knowledge and a clear view) and Garganey.   Shooters are required to make a positive identification to remain within the law.  Shooting any non-quarry wildfowl species by accident is an offence, just as a photographer would be unable to claim his disturbance of a Schedule 1 species was due to ignorance of what it was.AmenJohn</blockquote>