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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PaulD" data-source="post: 1710362" data-attributes="member: 11840">Hi TerryMany thanks for your comments. To me at least the two issues of:-A. Whether our EO population has any significant wild inputB. Whether EO would “harm” our ecosystemsAre entirely separate. I have looked at the information regarding A and as I’ve said the evidence clearly indicates our population originates from escapes, deliberate releases and their offspring.With regard to B I have no special knowledge on this, so apologies for not commenting, but I will leave it for others who have relevant information/experience to comment.On the DEFRA document I’m afraid I can’t work up too much enthusiasm about debating differing uses and interpretations of the word “could”; again it’s not my field.I will read the paper by Tony Warburton with interest when it does appear. If he successfully tracks down photos of EOs on North Sea platforms then that will be interesting. As you are probably aware for the BB paper we contacted the North Sea Bird Club and they said they had no records of EOs.However I would strike a note of caution. I get mildly irritated by the way birdwatchers talk about the possibility of a record from the east coast or a North Sea platform as if it would be definitive proof of a wild migrant.If Lee Evans figure of over 40 pairs of EOs in the UK is correct then that is not far away from the total number of pairs in Denmark, Holland and Belgium. So why should an EO at say Spurn or Flamborough in October be assumed to have come from the continent. Isn’t it actually more likely to have come from a British pair (especially as Norwegian studies are quoted in BWP as saying that young birds have a tendency to move to coastal areas).Again if the record is from a North Sea platform say 40km off the east coast why should it be assumed that it is a Continental bird and not a British one.For anyone touting the possibility of Scandanavian birds crossing the North Sea can I again point out the rather striking fact that despite over 3000 ringing recoveries the Swedes have never had an EO make the relatively minor sea crossing to Denmark. It’s facts like that, not assumptions, which led to the conclusions in the BB paper.</blockquote>

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