Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice for Wildfowl Quarry Species

[Conor O'Gorman]

BASC is recommending a voluntary moratorium on shooting pochard, voluntary bag limits for pintail and European white-fronted geese, and delaying shooting of goldeneye, snipe and woodcock.

Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice

Conserving our wildfowl for the next generation - ShootingUK

BASC, and WAGBI before it, has advocated self-regulation of shooting since 1908. BASC Council, its Wildfowling Liaison Committee and BASC staff have been involved in the development of the Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice for Wildfowl Quarry Species. The code has been positively received by wildfowling clubs with 45 per cent of BASC-affiliated clubs already adopting the recommendations.

We ask that everyone interested in the shooting and conservation of wildfowl reads and considers personally adopting the code recommendations for wildfowl in every part of the UK. That includes farmland, woodland, uplands, not only coastal marshes and estuaries.

Together we can ensure that self-regulation continues to maintain a sustainable harvest of wildfowl. If the code recommendations are widely supported, as we have seen with woodcock, that will strengthen our argument against further one-size fits all regulations being imposed on us.

 

[Heym SR20]

I would like to think that this code of conduct will already be pretty much be already within the DNA of most wildfowlers - ie shoot what you need / can eat, not shoot what you can.

I have shot geese and ducks inland over decoys and on flight points. I have shot with goose guides in the past and most of those have shown constraint, although some what off put by the size of the bag. As for ducks on flight ponds, especially reared ducks on flight ponds - it can be too easy to shoot far too many.

 

[Pedro]

Voluntary restraint (in my experience at any rate) works well in this particular area in my experience. I've shot geese in Scotland and on a couple of occasions in Orkney, where they are a bane to farmers and in numbers exceed the human population, but still restraint is shown and bags, when reached means stumps are pulled (to mix metaphors). Also on flight ponds (where there aren't released duck) restraint has to be shown or that particular pond won't see any duck for a while, so it's in the interests of the shooters. As for released duck, perhaps there isn't always that much restraint as the idea is to be able to shoot a good percentage of those released, and the restraint is often only to ensure some duck on subsequent dates. But even so, of those released duck, there'll be a proportion of them that'll live to enhance the local population, therefore there's a net gain.

Woodcock restraint on shoot days seems to depend on the particular shoot. But many altogether ban it or have some sort of system to prevent over-shooting. Although one shoot I know has no restraint. Albeit there's hardly ever many seen there. Not sure how coincidental that is though.

 

[Tim.243]

BASC is recommending a voluntary moratorium on shooting pochard, voluntary bag limits for pintail and European white-fronted geese, and delaying shooting of goldeneye, snipe and woodcock.

Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice

Conserving our wildfowl for the next generation - ShootingUK

BASC, and WAGBI before it, has advocated self-regulation of shooting since 1908. BASC Council, its Wildfowling Liaison Committee and BASC staff have been involved in the development of the Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice for Wildfowl Quarry Species. The code has been positively received by wildfowling clubs with 45 per cent of BASC-affiliated clubs already adopting the recommendations.

We ask that everyone interested in the shooting and conservation of wildfowl reads and considers personally adopting the code recommendations for wildfowl in every part of the UK. That includes farmland, woodland, uplands, not only coastal marshes and estuaries.

Together we can ensure that self-regulation continues to maintain a sustainable harvest of wildfowl. If the code recommendations are widely supported, as we have seen with woodcock, that will strengthen our argument against further one-size fits all regulations being imposed on us.

All clubs involved with BASC file bag returns also those clubs will see what is being shot so it will self govern, clubs have gun limits on their marshes also booking in system.
The commercial outfitter are the ones to look at.

 

[Smellydog]

I do like to have a go at a woodcock or two with muzzleloader per season. If I see a good covering that is.
Is that still ok?

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

I do like to have a go at a woodcock or two with muzzleloader per season. If I see a good covering that is.
Is that still ok?

Sounds fine to me - if you know the migratory birds are in there is much reduced risk of shooting the much scarcer resident birds.

 

[Smellydog]

Sounds fine to me - if you know the migratory birds are in there is much reduced risk of shooting the much scarcer resident birds.

Interestingly, I noticed more resident woodcock than ever before last spring!
I wonder if all the foxing is having effect.

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

Interestingly, I noticed more resident woodcock than ever before last spring!
I wonder if all the foxing is having effect.

Doing our bit for woodcock

"As ground-nesting and foraging birds, woodcock are vulnerable to predation, most notably by foxes. Studies have shown that controlling predators such as foxes and carrion crows can lead to an increase in breeding success of ground-nesting birds. Therefore, the importance of protecting woodcock from predation cannot be overlooked..."

See also various recorded predators of woodcock here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00063659809461091

See also conservation measures for woodcock from the code of practice:

• Targeted habitat creation and management for both breeding and wintering populations is required.
o Create or widen woodland rides to provide breaks in the tree canopy. Ideally, rides should be at least 8m wide.
o Mow rides and clearings to produce accessible grassy feeding and breeding display sites.
o Create and reinstate clearings and young woodland using a little-but-often policy. Over time this creates a mosaic of woodland types and ages.
o Periodically remove marginal vegetation along sections of ditch or pond edges where these features occur within or close to woodlands.
o Create wet features that retain ground moisture into late summer.
• Pest and predator control.
• Refuge provision, either for set periods of time (temporal) or over dedicated areas of land (spatial), dependent on site requirements.

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

A focus on BASC recommendations for a voluntary moratorium on shooting pochard and a voluntary bag limit for pintail:

The plight of British pochard and pintail - ShootingUK

In August, I wrote about BASC’s Sustainable Shooting Code of Practice for Wildfowl Quarry Species and recommended actions for various birds (BASC comment, 28 August). This time, let’s look at pochard and pintail. Pochard: no shooting Pochard are found on bodies of water across the UK that are...

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