Buzzards and Kites eating everything again (1 Viewer)

[John B (not the sloop)]

This person is kicking off again |8||
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/country-diary/8579259/Buzzards-and-red-kites-are-on-the-rise.html#dsq-content

 

[Mike Price]

He certainly has an axe to grind, what particually annoys me about this article is not the lies or the misrepresentation of the facts as you might expect. It's the fact that he thinks the whole of the UK is dry and arid because they haven't had much rain down south

 

[sglynas]

He says that an Eagle owl took a hen Harrier off the nest and it was captured on a web cam.
Is this true ?

Steve.

 

[Amarillo]

No, I think it landed in the nest, disturbing the female bird

To be fair the one thing I agree with in the article is the hypocrasy of the RSPB regarding sea eagles and eagle owls. A sea eagle could do exactly the same to a bittern nest in Suffolk as an eagle owl could do to a harriers in Bowland

 

[Trystan]

He certainly has an axe to grind, what particually annoys me about this article is not the lies or the misrepresentation of the facts as you might expect. It's the fact that he thinks the whole of the UK is dry and arid because they haven't had much rain down south

For me the lies and the misrepresentation of the facts is enough to be annoyed about. Furious infact.

 

[acipiter]

This bloke is always on the local radio, the last thing I heard him talking about was how sparrow hawks were killing all the song birds. There is no need for me to spell it out any further is there guys, we all know where he is coming from.

 

[John B (not the sloop)]

No, I think it landed in the nest, disturbing the female bird

To be fair the one thing I agree with in the article is the hypocrasy of the RSPB regarding sea eagles and eagle owls. A sea eagle could do exactly the same to a bittern nest in Suffolk as an eagle owl could do to a harriers in Bowland

Marsh Harriers were predating juvie Bitterns at Minsmere a few years back. The RSPB let nature take its course and now everything's dandy with both species doing nicely.

 

[John B (not the sloop)]

For me the lies and the misrepresentation of the facts is enough to be annoyed about. Furious infact.

Join the club....... :C

 

[alan_rymer]

For me the lies and the misrepresentation of the facts is enough to be annoyed about. Furious infact.

I think I have got into trouble before by asking: What are the lies he is telling in that article and what were the misrepresentation of facts? It may bave been about an Eagle Owl eating the chicks of a Marsh Harrier?
This was refuted by " No, I think it landed in the nest, disturbing the female bird".
O.K. The guy is sensationalising and driving his point of view by the way of his description. But he's a journalist, and they all write pushing a pro, or anti point of view, and only anti is really news.
The general public are no longer satisfied with facts. They want, need, the presenters of the news to lay their own slant on things and the presenters then get people commenting, either agreeing or disagreeing. If there are no comment they seem to interpret that as they not doing their job ( or maybe thats the editors view?). Threads like this encourage them.
No comments are evidence of their own unimportance.

Rant in favour of truth, honesty and the Daily Mail way of life over

 

[Ptarmi]

If this guy was a Cockney, his mates would call him a Banker!

Sure, we all know songbird numbers are decreasing, but it's clearly got absolutely nothing to do with Birds of Prey or Magpies or Crows.

Let's face it, Swift numbers are decreasing at an alarming rate too, but I seriously doubt that many of those are killed each year by Magpies, Crows or Birds of Prey. Of course not, surely the major problem is we are wiping out their food supply at an equally alarming rate!

I reckon the answer is simple & it lies with the vast quantities of harmful chemicals that farmers, including the owners of all estates, both large & small, are flooding our countryside with!
That should be the direction taken for action by any major thrust to save our songbirds!

Please, please, leave our wildlife alone to find its own natural balance. Nature will always be able to do a far, far better job of it, than any of our idiotic & mindless, self-interested meddling could ever hope to achieve! :C

Cheers
Dick

 

[Irish Kite]

This person is kicking off again |8||
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/country-diary/8579259/Buzzards-and-red-kites-are-on-the-rise.html#dsq-content

He seems to be under the impression that there are no rodents or rabbits in the English countryside - just highlights the fact that the press love empty vessels|=\|

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

I think he meets an interesting point that birds of prey did not have road kill as a major part of their diets during Victorian times.

With regard to the drought an earlier post mentioned not all the UK were experiencing this to the same degree. Perhaps he's angling for a job with the EBC.

 

[Ptarmi]

I stopped & spent a glorious 5 mins, on my way to work yesterday, watching a Buzzard hunting & eating Worms on a rain sodden field, behaving a bit like a rather ungainly looking Blackbird on a lawn.

If anything needs culling, it's estate owners ..... & their Gamekeepers! :C

Cheers,
Dick

 

[^monet^]

This person is kicking off again |8||
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/country-diary/8579259/Buzzards-and-red-kites-are-on-the-rise.html#dsq-content

Are there any recently published, peer reviewed scientific papers that tell us what Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and Red Kites actually do eat ?

 

[harr1y]

Short and sweet ..he has an axe to grind with B.O.P and hes talking s**t ..just a journalist with no story trying to make dramatic reading and grab himself some attention... hes knows hes talking s**t and has no friends ...better bad response than no response at all

 

[Tideliner]

I have been watching buzzards as part of my job for the past 15 years and yes they do eat birds as well as worms , carrion , reptiles , frogs , beetles rabbits and small mammals. But the Percentage of birds in their diet is small compared to other food in the majority of cases.

I have seen them taking moorhens and coots rarely and doubtless will not pass up the chance of an easy meal of ground nesting bird chicks. I have seen one attempt to catch a blackbird without any luck. But only one out of the dozens of pairs I have watched have speclised in birds. They were a pair that mainly fed their young on recently fledged rooks , crows and jays.

But its no good the RSPB sweeping the issue under the carpet , to be creditable they have to be honest. Yes buzzards do take birds , but with rare exceptions birds are not a major part of their diet.

 

[Himalaya]

People should stop blaming wildlife for the decline in our wildlife and learn to look no further than themselves. Our greed is making it difficult for wildlife to live with us. If we lived simpler there would be less destruction.

 

[Irish Kite]

What issue??

. They were a pair that mainly fed their young on recently fledged rooks , crows and jays.

But its no good the RSPB sweeping the issue under the carpet , to be creditable they have to be honest. Yes buzzards do take birds , but with rare exceptions birds are not a major part of their diet.

What issue?? - they take a few birds including vermin like various corvids. So what?? - the only ones making an issue about this are the usual clowns that get a soap-box in the Tory press|8||

 

[Irish Kite]

People should stop blaming wildlife for the decline in our wildlife and learn to look no further than themselves. Our greed is making it difficult for wildlife to live with us. If we lived simpler there would be less destruction.

Well said - Its the same situation in Canada ATM as regards Caribou and wolves. Caribou are in decline due to over-hunting(by trophy hunters) and habitat destruction. The response of the authorities has been to slaughter thousands of wolves, often using outdated and cruel methods. The hypocracy and ignorance is sickening:C

 

[Mike Price]

I have visited a number of buzzards nest this season and the majority of the kills in this area are rabbit, I have also found vole, crow, magpie and jay but as stated its a very small minority compared to the amount of rabbit.
One thing I should say though is that there are a great many corvids locally as birds of prey have been greatly lacking and are still absent in many areas particually close to the grouse moors