Dead pheasants
- Thread starter Barlowbob
- Start date
Get a transistor radio and leave it on a talk channel. (in a plastic bag to keep it dry). Move it regularly. I guess the poults aren't going up to roost just yet? Hopefully if nothing else, that'll solve it to a great degree. Could try netting if that's feasible.
Rhodesianjess
Well-Known Member
Pluck a dead bird. On the back there'll be purple slits with bruising around them. Talon strike marks. Tawny owl sounds like the culprit.
Also old/used CD disks, drill small hole at the top, length of bailer polypropalene, hang from branches of trees at varying heights. The wind and sun/moon will reflect on the CD's and discourage your perpetrators!!
Patrick
Will do that thanks for the advise
badbob
Well-Known Member
If they are small poults they they could be predated by buzzards, sparrow hawks or owls. You can usually see or hear buzzards and sparrow hawks.
The pheasants can also get their heads through the bottom wire and get bit off by foxes and badgers. Sounds like they`ve panicked and flew off.
Sorry you have been attacked , its part of the hazards of releasing young poults on a small scale. CD discs ,painted faces, lights might help. trouble is they come back day after day or night after night..
Your pen of 100 birds soon dwindles to a dozen too frightened to come out and feed.
Try trail cameras in the pen. You need lots of cover , if not put some brash piles in. Its never easy ,you need a thousand birds, big pens, then you wont miss a few hundred to predators.
The pheasants can also get their heads through the bottom wire and get bit off by foxes and badgers. Sounds like they`ve panicked and flew off.
Sorry you have been attacked , its part of the hazards of releasing young poults on a small scale. CD discs ,painted faces, lights might help. trouble is they come back day after day or night after night..
Your pen of 100 birds soon dwindles to a dozen too frightened to come out and feed.
Try trail cameras in the pen. You need lots of cover , if not put some brash piles in. Its never easy ,you need a thousand birds, big pens, then you wont miss a few hundred to predators.
Freeforester
Well-Known Member
High (brow) fliers will be the order of (To)day!
Scapegoat
Well-Known Member
I’m skeptical about bird predation. They’d tend to take one or two and if you found them half eaten they’d have been plucked and possibly breasted. Fox and mustelidae and even cats on the other hand prize the heads and those go first.
Have a good check for any breach in the fencing/ mesh, you’d be surprised how small a gap they can get under.
Have a good check for any breach in the fencing/ mesh, you’d be surprised how small a gap they can get under.
I'm no professional keeper but ran a home shoot for 12 years. Two pens, the smaller with 200 birds and the larger with 300. The wire was dug 6" into the ground, two strands of electric around the outside. Each pen had an old double garage door propped 18" off the ground in it to give them shelter in the rain and from avian predators and the pens were built in the woods so plenty of cover and roosting anyway. I also stacked half a dozen or so piles of brash and old branches to give them cover from predators as well. Lots of CD's hanging from the trees, probably 20 or so each pen. No radio and no lights. I don't think I lost more than a handful of birds each year and had plenty of tawny's, buzzards and sparrowhawks about. Never had a fox/badger/polecat or even a mink or otter get in, despite being 300m from the river and knowing they were about.
Don't be discouraged by those that tell you you need to put down thousands of birds, you don't. We enjoyed five 30 to 70 bird days a year and averaged 45% returns from our little shoot. It was great fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Don't be discouraged by those that tell you you need to put down thousands of birds, you don't. We enjoyed five 30 to 70 bird days a year and averaged 45% returns from our little shoot. It was great fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
sir-lamp-alot
Well-Known Member
Could be adult tawnys teaching there young how to hunt
Rhodesianjess
Well-Known Member
As a professional keeper, I've had some awful experience with birds of prey. Upwards of 100 with the head's pulled off, not a single one eaten! That was tawny owl.
Buzzard land on the poults,quick tweak and off with it. Very little evidence left behind.
Sparrowhawk tends to pluck and eat at kill site, generally just one side of the breast.
Goshawk just swoops in not stopping and off with the victim.
Human presence is the best deterrent. Black cotton run between trees over open patches in your pen really unsettling for owls, breaking the cotton but not damaging them. Radio at night helps too.
Fingers crossed for you, it's a cross you have to bear unfortunately.
Buzzard land on the poults,quick tweak and off with it. Very little evidence left behind.
Sparrowhawk tends to pluck and eat at kill site, generally just one side of the breast.
Goshawk just swoops in not stopping and off with the victim.
Human presence is the best deterrent. Black cotton run between trees over open patches in your pen really unsettling for owls, breaking the cotton but not damaging them. Radio at night helps too.
Fingers crossed for you, it's a cross you have to bear unfortunately.
Give us a clue on where they are dead ,, ie in corners, under cover , or just in the open on grass ,, my biggest problem has always been stoats and mink , also Tawney owls to a lesser degree , but as has been said , pluck the feathers off to reveal more info , stoats and mink will have bruising and bite marks at the base of the skull
They were spread about lots of cover in the pen found a few heads in a patch away from the bodies
Fursty Ferret
Well-Known Member
Would like to see some evidence of Tawney owls taking poults.....I am not convinced!
Who has trail cam footage or images to prove this?
Who has trail cam footage or images to prove this?
We are putting cameras o out
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