As an aside to this, why are buzzards still protected?
I thought that protection was to ensure the survival of scarce species (& quite right too), but buzzards are not only no longer scarce they are extremely common - around us I think they are too numerous & the young ones get pushed out as they can't establish a territory.
I have been told that the excessive buzzard numbers are one of the reasons we are seeing a drop in kestrels due to both completion and nest predation.
So, just a thought, but is the protected status ever reviewed? And will the pro raptor groups ever acknowledge that larger numbers of one species can impact adversely on another - goshawks certainly take a lot of kestrels & generally "don't play well with others".
It appears that under the present system the protection of buzzards is far more about lobbying pressure by the pro raptor groups than it is about genuine conservation of scarce species; to that end it rather dilutes the purpose of a protected status. With the buzzard numbers in Wales it's almost like conferring protected status on crows, (Well maybe not, as we have them in plague proportions!).
I just wondered who reviews the listed status? I assume it is largely on the basis of "evidence" provided to the government by the very groups who have a pro raptor agenda; so I don't suppose it will be changed to reflect reality any time soon.
The pillock shouldn't have shot the buzzard though.
Regards, Tyke.
Actually, in UK law ALL birds are protected, not just scare ones, EXCEPT:
- Specified game birds (pheasants, partridges, duck, geese, etc)
- Pest species that can be killed on a General Licence (pigeons, crows, now also Canada Geese)
- Pest species where a licence to kill them may be issued if it can be proved that other methods of control do not work (e.g. some fish-eating species, such as cormorants and Goosanders).
The categories are reviewed regularly, at the request of all parties (gamekeepers, fisheries, farmers, conservationists): Canada Geese came onto the General Licence quite recently due to the damage they do both to water quality and some farms.
We need to be aware that the sheer quantity (and quality) of data that has been accumulated by scientific conservation bodies like the British Trust for Ornithology is almost impossible to argue against, certainty to government: the recent Atlas of Breeding Birds of the UK and Ireland took 5 years to compile and has well over 15,000 contributors, while the latest
Population Estimates of Birds in Great Britain and the United Kingdom is a peer-reviewed paper: there is no almost higher quality science than that.
You are absolutely right that raptors can have an effect on other raptors: in my part of Pembrokeshire its Peregrines on Kestrels. The Buzzard vs Osprey predation is unusual, but Goshawks are well-known to predate on Buzzards. Ultimately, all of these species are apex predators, so their numbers and distribution are totally related to food and habitat: if either goes, so will the predators: they don't need us to control them.
I worry that field sports will lose even more public support if we are seen to have an intensifying anti-raptor (and fish-eating birds) agenda. And cases like this one really play into the antis hands.
