Canada geese

[bobjs]

there are 1 pair of pink feet who are still here, and the spotting scope was used as a back up for safety and confirming my shots to be totally safe with respect to other wild life, and the lakes are surrounded by woodland and fencing that needed to be negoctiated to take safe shots. forgive me for being a safe shooter but unless you know the lay of the land I was covering I think your remarks are rather disrespectful regarding salty when shooting,

so sir if you wish to come down and see them you are most welcome to do so, as stated it was done to protect a SSSI site and for no other reason, and the fact that when you have a few Canada geese around you will end up with a lot more on site, I cannot afford the area to be trashed with them eating newly seeded grass and lots protected flowers and plants that I have to protect.

PS: I took no enjoyment from the task in hand but it needed to be done,

bob.

 

[stalkerboydy]

there are 1 pair of pink feet who are still here, and the spotting scope was used as a back up for safety and confirming my shots to be totally safe with respect to other wild life, and the lakes are surrounded by woodland and fencing that needed to be negoctiated to take safe shots. forgive me for being a safe shooter but unless you know the lay of the land I was covering I think your remarks are rather disrespectful regarding salty when shooting,

so sir if you wish to come down and see them you are most welcome to do so, as stated it was done to protect a SSSI site and for no other reason, and the fact that when you have a few Canada geese around you will end up with a lot more on site, I cannot afford the area to be trashed with them eating newly seeded grass and lots protected flowers and plants that I have to protect.

PS: I took no enjoyment from the task in hand but it needed to be done,

bob.

Bob Thanks for clarifying .
I truly do understand the problems Geese can cause especially Canada Geese I've been dealing with them for over Forty years.
And I for one minute never thought you enjoyed the task. But ( not a dig at yourself ) since Canada Geese have been given the status they I've had numerous arguments with people shooting Greylag Geese out of season or just wacking Canada Geese just for the hell of it.
Myself have been asked to sort/solve Goose and Deer problems BOTH of which I did not enjoy all I done was made sure I was 100% Legal done the job moved on and keep it of open forums

 

[bobjs]

Bob Thanks for clarifying .
I truly do understand the problems Geese can cause especially Canada Geese I've been dealing with them for over Forty years, Myself have been asked to sort/solve Goose and Deer problems BOTH of which I did not enjoy all I done was made sure I was 100% Legal done the job moved on and keep it of open forums

cheers fella.

i was seeking help and advice as this is the first time I have ever even looked at geese, sadly it seems I have made a bit of a boob out of this, but even at my age I am still learning,

respect

bob.

 

[ileso]

The goslings are usually quite independant little things and very hardy. even without the parent, though without the flock they are easy prey for foxes and feral cats.
Guess the jobs gotta be done whether some people like it or not.

Though its probably better to disrupt geese before they nest so as to push them off somewhere else... that way theres no moral dilema.

Its never very nice to kill any animal that has young and I am sure bob took no pleasure in it else he wouldnt have started the thread the way he did.
Anyway, geese are pretty tasty, and given the young ones will survive there will be no shortage of them in future... wish we had theme here...

 

[Woodsmoke]

Guess the jobs gotta be done whether some people like it or not

Absolutely. And for my part I'd far rather see a post asking for advice than think of someone just going ahead and potentially making a complete arse of the job, just so that some peoples sensibilities could be spared.

As far as this being read by a wider audience? Good! I've had many discussions with people whom, after being given more information and being involved in a proper discussion, have begun to appreciate the wider aspects of shooting sports when it comes to conservation and the benefits to other non-target species and fauna. If we're doing nothing wrong we have nothing to hide, and I for one think it's a very good thing to have more people being able to learn about all aspects of shooting and the ethics that go along with it. Even if they still don't find themselves able to embrace it, at least they have both sides of the argument to think about. Antis will always be antis as they're too blinded by their own prejudices to ever change, but the vast majority of folk have been fed so many misconceptions that their understanding is unfairly-skewed. This is an opportunity to allow them to provide some balance

 

[finnbear270]

Anyone who I speak with when the conversation turns to sport, (the interminable football this or football that), I always tell them if it doesn't go bang, or I can't make burgers out of it, I'm not interested.

 

[mudman]

Its never very nice to kill any animal that has young and I am sure bob took no pleasure in it else he wouldnt have started the thread the way he did.
Anyway, geese are pretty tasty, and given the young ones will survive there will be no shortage of them in future... wish we had theme here...

the young ones were also shot.

 

[sltrawden]

i hope you were successful i recently did the same thing in the middle of a university campus, i carried out the shoot at 4:30 to limit passers by and limit any bad feeling i hope you didn't get any flack!

 

[bobjs]

i hope you were successful i recently did the same thing in the middle of a university campus, i carried out the shoot at 4:30 to limit passers by and limit any bad feeling i hope you didn't get any flack!

I had a witness with me and no flack at this end as the lakes where closed to the public for the work to be done, had a bit off flack on here but that's why I asked the questions.

never mind ?

bob.

 

[Laurie]

On the ethics issue, where I live (York) the public (or at any rate a vocal minority of the public) has repeatedly and consistently stopped a cull over a period of maybe 20 years or so.

Every few years, the people who actually use a very attractive mature riverside park complete with large pond and island (a major source of the problem), Rowntree Park, especially those who want to take their children to it, start a petition about the park being unusable thanks to goose crap spread all over it. The first time this came up, the council opted for a cull after exploring every other option including capture and relocation, a suitable recipient having been found 'darn south' somewhere. This was scuppered by DEFRA quite rightly which refused a license on the grounds that the Canada goose is a pest species, and there are no good reasons for transferring them to a Canada goose free location, and many against it.

The cull foundered on a virulent 'Save our geese' campaign with fliers nailed to trees, local media etc dragged in, Dame Judi Dench (born and brought up here) a vociferous supporter of the anti-cull group. Inevitiably, the council caved in.

So egg addling, anti-nesting moves on the pond's island, egg replacement, all sorts of other expensive time-consuming and in the end useless initiatives replaced the cull. Today, we have as many geese on the River Ouse as ever, parks overrun and filthy, hardly any native waterfowl on the river, and every five or ten years another generation of the people who actually use the park and take young children to it, try to get the council to take action without a hope, the politicians acting on the basis of once bitten, twice shy - and I don't blame them one bit given the vitriol of the anti-cull people when that was proposed.

Like Mudman, I find the idea of shooting (or trapping / neck wringing) 'sitting ducks and even more so their juveniles deeply unpleasant. Sometimes though, the correct answer involves deeply unpleasant actions and policies. If we were unable to do anything unpleasant, the Falklands would be called Los Malvinas now with its inhabitants Argentinian citizens, we'd invite Daesh to take over the West and institute Sharia law stripping women of nearly all rights and take us back to the Middle Ages, and so on and so forth.

Ironically, the park was given to the people of York for their use by the Rowntree family.

 

[Heym SR20]

No issue with culls such as this one that is done humanely and sympathetically. We need to do the same to urban seagulls. Not a pleasant task but then culling in large numbers is not pleasant but needs to be done. A rifle in the hands of a skilled marksman is often the most humane way of doing things with least amount of stress.

 

[sltrawden]

the big mistake lake Winder-mere made was to announce the start of a cull not the successful outcome of a cull. I currently work in pest control in central London and seagulls and pigeons are a nightmare as shooting cant really be carried out.

 

[ileso]

- young ones were also shot-

oh well... so much for that..
was there an option of rounding them up and raising them for meat? just asking... I raise geese and love eating them is why i'm asking.

also, not being from the UK or living there, the geese have a pest status right? so, how did they get there? were they introduced?

 

[bobjs]

- young ones were also shot-

oh well... so much for that..
was there an option of rounding them up and raising them for meat? just asking...

also, not being from the UK or living there, the geese have a pest status right? so, how did they get there? were they introduced?

very hard to round them up with no vehicle access to the SSSI ground etc, the came in from a local private lake, then they started to destroy the protected plants flower etc, this was all recorded by the person in charge of the lake, I was then contacted and asked if I would take on the task.


and I said yes,

thank you

bob.

 

[ileso]

I understand all that, I'm just curious, I meant the younger ones.. the adults obviously were ripe for the plucking already.

 

[Heym SR20]

Canada geese along with Muntjac Deer and grey squirrels were released into parks by Victorians as curiosities. They bred and bred and cause great distraction to indigenous wildlife. Grey squirrels have pretty much wiped out reds. Canada's are beautiful birds and great addition to the quarry list but their numbers in many urban areas are just too high. In Scotland there is an element of migration, but elsewhere they are pretty sedentary.

edit - just looked on wiki. The first Canada's were brought to the uk for James 11 wildfowl collection in the 17th century. The do also come across the Atlantic occasionally on their own. Strong westerly winds would blow them off course.

Canada goose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia