Buzzard Population in Ireland

[amallon]

In the last five years I'd say there hasn't been a day when I haven't seen some sort of bird of prey.  When I was growing up here they weren't around at all.  We have buzzards and red kites here.  The RSBP are interested in Kite sightings so if you think you have one you in your area have a look at this site http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details/272999-northern-ireland-red-kites#contact   A guy from the RSPB came out to me and identified the kites we have here.  One of the pair was introduced from Wales the other is a chick that was born here.

[firestarter]

Havent seen a red kite in the wild here yet at all, but il keep an eye out!

[Wildweasel74]

there is an eagle owl on the outskirts of gorey up into the mountain, nearly crashed the car when i seen it, though it seems to be tame, a man owns it around them parts

[firestarter]

yeah they dont exist in the wild here mores the pity. Seen 1 in that 'eagles flying' place in sligo.They are unreal. My fav of all birds of prey.

[Agent Orange]

There are certainly a lot more birds of prey in our skies these days. Quite a few buzzards along with a few other birds that I was unable to identify. There are a few red kites locally, but I wouldn't want to draw anyones attention to their location. Long may it continue.

[Dougal Maguire]

there is an eagle owl on the outskirts of gorey up into the mountain, nearly crashed the car when i seen it, though it seems to be tame, a man owns it around them parts

Holy God, you mean they can drive!!

[Tony Baloney]

there is an eagle owl on the outskirts of gorey up into the mountain, nearly crashed the car when i seen it, though it seems to be tame, a man owns it around them parts

Holy God, you mean they can drive!!

Was seen driving a Peugeot Twit-Twoo Oh-Six.

[orangeman]

Huge numbers of buzzards - they're coming to lower places cos of the already high numbers in the higher ground.


Deadly to see them hunting.

[Evil Genius]

Robin Page, a farmer and well-known writer on countryside/wildlife issues in GB etc, has trenchant views on Conservation, esp. the issue of Predator control (he's for it, the RSPB and National Trust are against) . In his article below, he notes that the British Buzzard population increased by 545% between 1970 and 2007. I'm not sure how Ireland compares, but I guess there may be some parallels.

Time to prey on predators

We must cull the killing machines now if we are to preserve the balance of nature in this country.

What is going on? As the "conservation industry" gets bigger and better – with more land, more appeals, more money and more members – so the features and creatures that our conservationists are supposed to be conserving – Britain's wildlife – diminish by the hour. With each new survey and study Britain's farmland, woodland and moorland birds become fewer. Even the poor old hedgehog is becoming a regional rarity.

And all this before the concrete mixers get going under the Government's absurd and destructive planning reforms which could put so much more countryside at risk.

But why? Conservationists have never owned more land. The National Trust with its four million members owns an astonishing 627,000 acres including 76 nature reserves and 709 miles of coastline.

The RSPB, with more than a million members, has 355,680 acres, on 209 reserves. The Woodland Trust has 1,272 sites covering 56,300 acres and the Wildlife Trusts own 2,300 reserves, totalling 46,930 acres.

The standard answer to questions of wildlife decline is usually two words "intensive farming", but there are hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in various "green" agri-environment schemes. So why is our wildlife suffering?

According to the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Garden Bird Survey, over the past 40 years garden blue tits have decreased by 42 per cent, house sparrows by 70 per cent and song thrushes by 75 per cent.

The truth is that at a time when much of our wildlife is disappearing, so the predators of garden birds, farmland birds – and even hedgehogs – are increasing.

The numbers of foxes, badgers, mink, grey squirrels, crows, magpies, ravens, buzzards, sparrowhawks and herons are on the up, and not forgetting in excess of nine million domestic cats. Collectively they are wrecking the wildlife of Britain. Indeed the sparrowhawk problem was highlighted on the Daily Telegraph's letters page last month.

The situation is summed up well by Ian Coghill, chairman of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, who worked for many years as Head of Environmental Services for Birmingham City Council. He says: "Twenty years ago when I drove eight miles through the suburbs to work I saw blackbirds, song thrushes and mistle thrushes – now all I see are grey squirrels, magpies and crows. The 'experts' ignore this as 'anecdotal evidence'."

When I was a boy the only predators we saw were kestrels, barn owls and tawny owls; the birds of woodland, wetland, farmland and garden were prolific. With nearly every farmyard and village garden having free-range hens, predators, particularly foxes, magpies, crows and sparrowhawks were not tolerated. The sparrowhawk received no legal protection until 1962.

Now, as predator populations are booming many vulnerable species are being hit hard. Between 1970 and 2007 the magpie population of Britain increased by 96 per cent, carrion crows by 81 per cent, sparrowhawks by 99 per cent and buzzards by an amazing 545 per cent.

British conservationists know that serious damage is being inflicted on vulnerable species by assorted predators – who are taking eggs, young and adults, too, when the opportunity arises — but many of them will not admit that this is happening.

At the RSPB's Abernethy reserve in Scotland, pine martens create havoc with red squirrels and ground nesting capercaillie; bitterns suffer in the jaws of foxes and mink at the National Trust's Wicken Fen reserve. Stone curlews and bustards face foxes and badgers on Salisbury Plain. Rare black-tailed godwits are predated by marsh harriers at the Nene Washes (last year only 25 chicks survived from 44 nests. This year, no chicks survived from 41 nests).

In the Ouse Washes snipe have been hammered by the preferential hunting of sparrowhawks. Along the whole north Norfolk coast the rapidly increasing population of marsh harriers is hoovering up lapwings and at the National Trust's Long Mynd estate in Shropshire the last pair of ring ouzels was predated by a stoat.

In a large wood on the Cambridgeshire/Hertfordshire border the lesser-spotted woodpeckers were killed off by sparrowhawks and in the south-west Peak District numbers of curlew, lapwing and snipe have plummeted thanks to a variety of predators, including badgers.

Water voles, dippers, kingfishers and moorhens have all been hit by the mink invasion. In the Chilterns, some residents are even concerned at the rocketing number of red kites.

Simple population control, or the disturbance of predators during their breeding/nesting season, could prevent this litany of conservation disaster – but few dare suggest it because of "conservation correctness".

Andrew Green of the highly successful private wetland reserve Kingfisher Bridge, close to Wicken Fen, says: "Clearly predators will always predate and obviously where all the balances have been changed by human activities that will affect predators. If we don't do anything with foxes, crows, magpies and the alien grey squirrel and mink it will damage biodiversity. What some of the large institutions don't seem to realise is that we have a duty to manage things to get species balance."

Unfortunately some organisations carry out population management, but they do so secretly. To achieve its fantastic return of spoonbills and little terns to its Holkham National Nature Reserve, Natural England shot 47 foxes last summer. At its Lakenheath Reserve in Suffolk, the RSPB had 25 foxes shot to protect ground-nesting bitterns, cranes and marsh harriers – although ironically the marsh harriers can also predate the young cranes and bitterns.

When asked about fox control the warden said: "Oh, I can't tell you that, as half our members agree with it and half of them disagree." It took over two months to get confirmation from the RSPB headquarters. But if the members don't know what is going on – or the reasons for it – how can they make an informed judgment?

This year, incredibly, on May 16 a fox that had been operated on for an injury, and castrated was shot at Lakenheath – thus exposing the myth that foxes are not released into the countryside.

The wellbeing of one bird, the stone curlew, is almost entirely due to fox and crow control, yet on the RSPB's information sheet the success is put down to "habitat restoration".

Chris Knights, trustee of the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT), wildlife photographer and farmer (whose farm has the highest density of stone curlews in the country), says: "Without gamekeeping the stone curlews would not be the success they are. The fox is the stone curlew's biggest enemy."

So why won't some conservationists admit to what is happening and what needs to be done? Their usual response to wildlife declines is simply to blame farmers. For some of our major conservation bodies, particularly the RSPB and the National Trust (I am a member of both), it seems that there is a conflict between marketing and conservation.

Visitors, donations and legacies, against lapwings, biodiversity and Mrs Tiggywinkle. At present the marketing men seem to be winning, with the RSPB and the National Trust becoming the Tesco and Waitrose of supermarket-style conservation.

The large charities frequently talk about "engagement" and "education", but they seem reluctant to "engage" their members, to educate them about some real issues, including predator control.

Recently I spoke to an RSPB group in Bishop's Stortford – the substance of that talk has gone into this article. Not one person walked out; not one person asked a hostile or loaded question and most spent the evening nodding their heads in agreement. In fact, the next day the branch secretary emailed the CRT asking for a group visit to Lark Rise Farm.

Sadly, it seems that many conservationists themselves are helping to kill the countryside by ignoring what is actually going on there and by so doing they are seriously underestimating the intelligence of their millions of members.

Robin Page is founder and chairman of the Countryside Restoration Trust and is an elected member of the National Trust Council
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/country-diary/8866765/Time-to-prey-on-predators.html

[Evil Genius]

Huge numbers of buzzards - they're coming to lower places cos of the already high numbers in the higher ground.


Deadly to see them hunting.

As well as extending their range, it seems they may also be widening their prey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWxWQ4PmCk

P.S. Robin Page (see above), revealed that this sort of predation had been observed before, but the RSPB and other wildlife charities always denied it. He writes about it in the middle of this article, landing some right digs at "Countryfile", amongst others:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/9408057/Country-diary-Old-codgers-dont-always-know-best.html

[maddog]

Robin Page, a farmer and well-known writer on countryside/wildlife issues in GB etc, has trenchant views on Conservation, esp. the issue of Predator control (he's for it, the RSPB and National Trust are against) . In his article below, he notes that the British Buzzard population increased by 545% between 1970 and 2007. I'm not sure how Ireland compares, but I guess there may be some parallels.

Time to prey on predators

We must cull the killing machines now if we are to preserve the balance of nature in this country.

The situation is summed up well by Ian Coghill, chairman of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, who worked for many years as Head of Environmental Services for Birmingham City Council. He says: "Twenty years ago when I drove eight miles through the suburbs to work I saw blackbirds, song thrushes and mistle thrushes – now all I see are grey squirrels, magpies and crows. The 'experts' ignore this as 'anecdotal evidence'."

If they want to cut the numbers of crows and magpies give the people of Birmingham wheelie bins. This morning is bin morning on our road and the street is covered in rubbish which no doubt gathers rats as well. It used to be foxes attacking an odd bin bag but now the crows and the cats are very adapt at tearing them to shit. Doesnt help that people that have no need to like to put their bins out the night before, bin wagon is around at about 8 so most could leave them out on their way to work. Gear grinding stuff. As for the birds of prey, put an army of them into the city centre to red up the the pigeons and gulls that infest it. There was a peregine falcon breeding pair on the BT tower but havent seen them in a couple of years. Saw 2 buzzards (at least i think they were buzzards - wing span of about 5 feet id say) when out cycling last night. Stopped to have a look when they landed. Not a bird squawked or chirped in the hedgerows while they were on the ground. Dont know enough about them but cool to watch them in flight.

[deiseach]

It was once (back in the Middles Ages) illegal to kill a red kite because they were the best way they had of getting rid of urban garbage. The thought of a city landscape dominated by red kites makes me wonder whether we should abandon our modern rubbish disposal metho  . . .  actually no, I don't want to live amidst my own filth, but I manage to feel a twinge of sadness at not having red kites around

[Dougal Maguire]

I notice EG has been posting on this thread. I don't read his posts but can I assume he's discovered that Martin McGuiness has shot a few of them

[firestarter]

As well as extending their range, it seems they may also be widening their prey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWxWQ4PmCk

survival of the fittest!

[orangeman]

As well as extending their range, it seems they may also be widening their prey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWxWQ4PmCk

survival of the fittest!

That's some footage.

Looks like the mother saw the buzzard coming and got off side.