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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1672423" data-attributes="member: 36432">I wasn't suggesting that Stoats pose no risk at all.  I admit it could have looked like that.  However.... if Stone Curlew production at Weeting is to have positive value for the UK population it is no good producing Stone Curlews that "think" there are no Stoats in Britain: or have not been exposed to the range of threats that they will face attempting to breed off the reserve, perhaps on farmland where a nest site may be marked to prevent tractor damage but Stoats, Weasels, Crows, foxes etc are still present.Against that, ecological studies of Stoats and Weasels actually suggest that they make little use of the vast expanses of agricultural fields, finding more food available in the strips of hedge and bank between them.  The Weeting Rabbit-stuffed habitat, perhaps normal for the non-agricultural parts of the Brecks but unrepresentative of the arable prairies of East Anglia in general, probably produces a higher mustelid threat to Stone Curlews than they will encounter in the nesting habitat most of the UK SC population is in.  I think I may have just argued myself into a corner here, BUT: I stand by my earlier suggestion that a reserve reliably showing people Stoats in the open is probably more useful as an ambassador for British wildlife than giving them distant, heat-hazed views of the head of a Stone Curlew straight into the sun.  BTW I've tried Mount Grace Priory a few times and not scored there yet (on Stoat, before the BF pedants strike!): anyone done any better?I don't quite understand the other comment because the Stoats roam the whole Weeting reserve whereas the human disturbance is all at the north side and Stone Curlews quite obviously retreat from it whenever practicable.John</blockquote>

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