Les Brooks
Well-Known Member
That only keeps the males away cos they think the females have the decorators in.
Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh buzzards
- Thread starter cockerdog
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cockerdog
Well-Known Member
Leaving 50 plus dead lying around is not good practice, imagine what the uneducated would think if they found them.
I have left some to be eaten, but lets face it they didnt kill them to eat now did they? Young buzzards need to learn to hunt,and thats what they were doing.
No amount of cd's hanging, or plastic eagle owls or playing a radio has detered them.
Its just a naff situation which thankfully I have only witnessed twice in over 20 years as a keeper.
mayfly
Active Member
I help out at a shoot and have the same idea regarding cd's, but we also have owls(plastic off course situated over 5 acres off land, fence posts and on the pen fencing, as high as possible. I know this might not be suitable as your birds are in open surrounds, but i would say we have nearly a similiar set up. We did have losses at the start to buzzards, but once the owls went up the kill ratio fell to zero.
Les Brooks
Well-Known Member
They do work, I put my big owl in the middle fo one of my covers when it was drilled and it kept the crows off too
flytie
Well-Known Member
We have buzzards, kites, ravens, peregrines and goshawks locally. The peregrines are doing some good at controling the others!
We found that the buzzards/kites were taking poults when they were on the feeders in or near the release pen, so we wrapped and secured sheep netting around the tripod bases of the feeders and this worked well at limiting their successes.
Carcasses have to be moved out of the pens I agree (because of disease and to please the ramblers), but you can make a feeding station elsewhere to draw the preditors away from your pens with the occassional dead poult or some rabbits.
There is a school of thought that a bit of early summer squirrel drey shooting (using a moderated shotgun) can disturb buzzards so they do not bring off chicks.
ft
We found that the buzzards/kites were taking poults when they were on the feeders in or near the release pen, so we wrapped and secured sheep netting around the tripod bases of the feeders and this worked well at limiting their successes.
Carcasses have to be moved out of the pens I agree (because of disease and to please the ramblers), but you can make a feeding station elsewhere to draw the preditors away from your pens with the occassional dead poult or some rabbits.
There is a school of thought that a bit of early summer squirrel drey shooting (using a moderated shotgun) can disturb buzzards so they do not bring off chicks.
ft
Groat
Member
Cockerdog,
I simpathise with you, Out of my 8 pens this year 2 pens have been devastated to the extent that the few Poults that have managed to escape the Buzzards are literaly terrified and don't like to come away from cover. It wasn't un common for me to go to a pen and and like you lift 30 to 50 poults on more than one occasion, I've tryed everything, all to no avail!!
For me I think the distinct lack of young Rabbits around these parts has a big influence on the way things have been this year hence me going to some of my release pens to find 6 to 9 Buzzards in the area leaving behind a trail of devastation and one angry and very dispondant Keeper
I simpathise with you, Out of my 8 pens this year 2 pens have been devastated to the extent that the few Poults that have managed to escape the Buzzards are literaly terrified and don't like to come away from cover. It wasn't un common for me to go to a pen and and like you lift 30 to 50 poults on more than one occasion, I've tryed everything, all to no avail!!
For me I think the distinct lack of young Rabbits around these parts has a big influence on the way things have been this year hence me going to some of my release pens to find 6 to 9 Buzzards in the area leaving behind a trail of devastation and one angry and very dispondant Keeper
Dan Gliballs
Well-Known Member
Wait until you get the Pine Marten down that way....... Game over!Cockerdog,
I simpathise with you, Out of my 8 pens this year 2 pens have been devastated to the extent that the few Poults that have managed to escape the Buzzards are literaly terrified and don't like to come away from cover. It wasn't un common for me to go to a pen and and like you lift 30 to 50 poults on more than one occasion, I've tryed everything, all to no avail!!
For me I think the distinct lack of young Rabbits around these parts has a big influence on the way things have been this year hence me going to some of my release pens to find 6 to 9 Buzzards in the area leaving behind a trail of devastation and one angry and very dispondant Keeper
jamross65
Well-Known Member
I didn't mean leave the lot lying around
just enough to hopefully keep them away from the living. But you make a good point about the uneducated coming across the carnage. Good oportunity to point out what killed them though...
cookingfat
Well-Known Member
found this on anther site i use,
http://www.horseandcountry.tv/celebrity/tony-lowry/do-men-or-women-chat-more
the video tape works a treat, all these things work but only for a short time till the buzzards get used to it, but that little exra time gives your poults a bit longer to get savie.
hope this helps CF
http://www.horseandcountry.tv/celebrity/tony-lowry/do-men-or-women-chat-more
the video tape works a treat, all these things work but only for a short time till the buzzards get used to it, but that little exra time gives your poults a bit longer to get savie.
hope this helps CF
I usually suffer with the Buzzards very badly, even made a point of finding out about a licence. Forget that, chances are nil. This year theyhave not been a problem till now, the poults are 13 weeks old and the Buzzards are at them. They have cleared one pen so badly there were virtually no poults in there today. As has been said, they really scatter the birds badly, some years I hate them more than foxes. At least you can do something about them.
We have a very high breeding rate for buzzards in our area, so we started false feeding, squirrels, rabbits etc to them all yr round, got to the stage where they started following us around, buzzards are lazy and don,t like to work to hard for food, they didn,t bother our poults much, after a few yrs we stopped doing it as we just went back to a rough shoot amazing how there numbers dropped.
You can normally pick out tawny Owls kills as they generally only take small poults as they start roosting and remove the heads. Also tawny kills are more often than not under trees etc: where roosting takes place, Buzzards kill in the open. As you say though, the end result is the same.
What really bugs me though is that if I were to kill a buzzard that is costing the shoot, even at the lowest costing of the price of a poult (£3) not the £25 plus at maturity say 21 pounds a week for up to 5 weeks or even more I could get fined several thousand pounds, go to prison and lose all my licences. Yet scum bags beat up people, put them in hospital and get off with a slap on the wrist. Bloody crazy.
What really bugs me though is that if I were to kill a buzzard that is costing the shoot, even at the lowest costing of the price of a poult (£3) not the £25 plus at maturity say 21 pounds a week for up to 5 weeks or even more I could get fined several thousand pounds, go to prison and lose all my licences. Yet scum bags beat up people, put them in hospital and get off with a slap on the wrist. Bloody crazy.
I always suffer from buzzard kills in the release pens and when the poults first venture out,they are usually nailed against the fence wire running along the edge of the woods.The screeching noise of young buzzards in the distance when i'm walking around the pens makes me feel sick and drives me mad.A couple of weeks ago I counted over sixty buzzards sat on a field that had been drilled using the min/till method on a nearby estate,is there any wonder pheasant poults are on the menu ?
As for the Ravens, I have them roosting very close to one of my release pens and to my knowlage have never had any problems with em.
As for the Ravens, I have them roosting very close to one of my release pens and to my knowlage have never had any problems with em.
Dan Gliballs
Well-Known Member
Christ on a bike!!
There is a major school of thought that it is the over production/ release of throwaway/ put and take game birds that is causing the modern buzzard epidemic.
In a very few years the pheasant will go the same route as the released partridge... ie if the pen isn't netted you better get them out of there as quick as possible. When there out they wont survive beyond 6 months of age "Even if they are not shot!"
Totally artificial production techniques in an effort too minimise unit cost produces a poor flyer with absolutely zilch instinct for survival. Buzzards and rats are the main beneficiaries of such short sighted modern game "conservation."
In a very few years the pheasant will go the same route as the released partridge... ie if the pen isn't netted you better get them out of there as quick as possible. When there out they wont survive beyond 6 months of age "Even if they are not shot!"
Totally artificial production techniques in an effort too minimise unit cost produces a poor flyer with absolutely zilch instinct for survival. Buzzards and rats are the main beneficiaries of such short sighted modern game "conservation."
cousin jack
Active Member
Well said that man!
I don't agree with "the major school of thought" on this. In Devon when I was a lad there were a lot of buzzards, then they went in to decline as a result of DDT etc: With those chemicals banned and a total protection for the buzzard, numbers started to climb. it is simple multiplication, more of any species produces more again. They have no natural predators and like the badger hereabouts are now in very large numbers. On the shoot i keeper I can always see a dozen or so and when ploughing takes place it has to be seen to be believed. A neighbouring keeper saw seventy or so following the plough. They are a nightmare and we should be allowed to protect our investments and livelihoods. The are a spectacular bird but a flaming nuisance and something should be done to reduce numbers. Those of us who live and work in the countryside should have a say. Wishfull thinking I suspect.
cousin jack
Active Member
I would agree wholeheartedly with you on numbers of said predators, but I also agree with the previous post about todays pheasant "farming" methods leaving a bird without the natural ability to look after itself.
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